THE  MIND  OF  WHITTIER 


The 

Mind  of  Whittier 


A    STUDY  OF  U/HITTIER'S    FUNDAMENTAL 
RELIGIOUS    IDEAS 


BY 

CHAUNCEY  J.  HAWKINS 

MINISTER    OF    FIRST    CONGREGATIONAL    CHURCH 
SPENCER,    MASSACHUSETTS 


No  harm  from  Him  can  come  to  me 
On  ocean  or  on  shore  " 


NEW      YORK 

THOMAS    WHITTAKER 

2     AND     3     BIBLE     HOUSE 


COPYRIGHT,  1904, 
BY  THOMAS  WHITTAKER. 


TO 

MY  WIFE 


CONTENTS 

PACK 

INTRODUCTION        . 

THE  INNER  LIGHT  .  •         9 

NATURE  OF  THE  INNER  LIGHT      .  .       28 

JESUS  CHRIST  38 

OPTIMISM     .            .           •           •  •        52 

RELIGION  AND  HUMANITY  .        62 

NATURE       .  8o 

FUTURE  LIFE          .           .           .  98 


THE 

MIND     OF     WHITTIER 

INTRODUCTION 

T)OETRY  is  the  common  man's  text 
book  on  religion.  If  we  could  ana 
lyze  the  religious  consciousness  of  men, 
we  might  find  that  as  many  religious 
ideas  come  from  the  poets  as  from  the 
Bible.  More  men  get  their  conception 
of  heaven  from  Dr.  Watts  than  from  St. 
John,  and  a  crude  conception  of  hell  may 
be  traced  to  Dante  and  Milton  rather 
than  to  the  New  Testament.  Whittier's 
thoughts  in  "  Eternal  Goodness "  have 
been  great  forces  in  shaping  our  concep 
tion  of  the  nature  of  God,  and  such 
poems  as  Lowell's  "  Vision  of  Sir  Laun- 
fal  "  and  Wordsworth's  "  Old  Cumber- 


2  The  Mind  of  Whittier 

land  Beggar  "  have  helped  toward  making 
man  love  his  neighbor  as  himself.  In 
Scotland  the  poetry  of  Burns  stood 
against  the  pitiless  doctrines  of  Calvin 
ism,  adding  a  freshness  and  charm  to 
religion,  while  in  an  age  of  agnosticism 
in  England  Tennyson  did  as  much  to 
keep  alive  religious  life  as  any  preacher 
of  his  time. 

Poetry  has  also  been  one  of  the  great 
est  forces  in  binding  the  religious  world 
together.  Men  will  differ  on  creeds  and 
catechisms,  they  will  fight  over  dogmas, 
but  through  the  words  of  the  poet  they 
will  come  together.  The  Protestant  can 
use  the  hymn  of  the  Catholic,  the  Ortho 
dox  the  hymns  of  the  Unitarian,  and 
Calvinist  and  Arminian  in  song  sit  down 
together.  When  the  religious  world 
philosophizes  it  falls  apart ;  when  it  wor 
ships  through  the  words  of  the  poet  it  is 
united.  The  poet  goes  beneath  the  form 
and  symbol  and  expresses  that  which  is 
eternal  and  unchanging. 


Introduction 


Curtis  says  :  "  Not  until  we  know  why 
the  rose  is  sweet,  the  dewdrop  pure,  or 
the  rainbow  beautiful,  will  we  know 
why  the  poet  is  the  best  benefactor  of 
society."  The  poet  is  an  idealist ;  he  is 

».«iWfc»*a««*»' 

a  spiritualist.  No  materialist  was  ever 
a  great  poet.  The  poet  sees  Infinite 
Thought  in  the  "  flower  in  the  crannied 
wall,"  and  he  feels  a  "  Presence  which 
disturbs  him  with  the  joy  of  elevated 
thought."  He  does  not  analyze.  When 
he  begins  to  use  the  knife  he  loses  his 
charm.  He  tells  you  what  he  sees  with 
his  spiritual  vision  and  leaves  his  vision 
with  the  reader.  He  is  the  divinely 
ordained  teacher  who  harmonizes  the 
material  and  the  spiritual ;  who  furnishes 
the  link  between  the  seen  and  the  un 
seen  ;  who  lifts  the  real  into  the  realm  of 
the  ideal,  and  makes  the  ide_al_  clearer  by 
clothing  jit^  in^the_ substance  of  Jhejreal. 
Hence  the  poet  by  necessity  deals  with 
religion  or  subjects  closely  akin  to  reli 
gion. 


4  The  Mind  of  Whittier 

It  is,  therefore,  always  helpful  to  study 
religion  through  the  poet.  Especially  is 
this  true  of  our  age,  for  the  expression 
of  religion  today,  as  it  was  in  the  time  of 
Jesus,  is  poetic.  No  greater  contrast 
could  be  found  in  a  single  field  of 
thought  than  the  contrast  between  old 
and  new  treatises  upon  dogmatic  theol 
ogy.  The  older  ones  were  hard,  inflex 
ible,  and  scholastic  in  style,  while  the 
best  modern  writers  on  the  subject  are 
easy,  flowing,  and  poetic.  Some  of  the 
sermons  of  the  older  divines  read  like 
books  on  logic,  while  such  printed  ser 
mons  as  those  by  Phillips  Brooks  and 
Frederick  Robertson  are  as  delightful 
reading  as  the  novels  of  Scott  or  the 
essays  of  Emerson. 

The  reason  for  this  is  obvious.  The 
ology,  today,  is  biblical.  But  the  Bible 
is  largely  a  book  of  poetry  either  in  form 
or  sentiment.  The  poetry  of  Job  and  of 
some  of  the  Psalms  is  of  the  highest 
type,  while  the  prophets  and  the  four 


Introduction  5 

evangelists  have  beautiful  poetic  touches 
on  every  page.  Religion  must  always 
be  poetical.  Sometimes  it  will  move 
with  the  dignified  and  solemn  step  of  the 
epic,  in  moments  of  great  joy  it  will 
burst  out  in  the  lyric,  but  from  its  nature 
it  must  always  be  closely  united  with 
harmony  and  rhythm.  Thus  there  can 
be  no  better  interpreter  of  the  essential 
spirit  of  Christianity  than  the  poet. 

John  W.  Chadwick,  in  speaking  of  the 
religious  influence  of  Bryant,  Emerson, 
Longfellow,  Lowell,  Holmes,  and  Whit- 
tier,  says  that  the  influence  of  Whittier 
upon  the  religious  world  was  greater 
than  that  of  any  of  the  others.  Mary  B. 
Chaflin  wrote  :  "  If  the  worth  of  a  life 
may  be  estimated  by  the  number  of 
hearts  comforted,  the  number  of  lives 
uplifted  and  inspired,  Mr.  Whittier's 
measure  will  exceed  that  of  most  men  of 
this  or  any  other  century."  Some  one 
has  said  :  "  I  would  rather  give  a  man 
pr  a  woman  on  the  verge  of  a  great 


6  The  Mind  of  Whittier 

moral  lapse  a  marked  copy  of  Whittier, 
than  any  other  book  in  our  language." 
It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  he  is  quoted 
from  the  press  and  the  pulpit  more  than 
any  other  American  poet.  Such  a  man 
must  have  a  spiritual  message  that  is 
fitted  to  comfort  and  inspire  human 
hearts.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to 
interpret  that  message. 

Whittier  will  probably  never  be  studied 
as  a  great  artist,  but  men  will  always 
be  interested  in  the  lofty  spirituality  of 
his  thought.  Tennyson  was  a  consummate 
artist,  and  many  will  be  interested  in  the 
form  rather  than  the  substance  of  his 
thought.  On  the  other  hand,  Whittier's 
aim  was  always  ethical.  Indeed,  much 
of  his  verse  can  scarcely  be  called  poetry  ; 
especially  is  this  true  of  his  "  Anti-Slav 
ery  Poems."  The  great  poet-reformer 
sacrificed  his  place  as  a  singer  for  a 
nobler  cause.  He  wrote  not  for  art's 
sake.  There  was  only  one  motive  behind 
all  his  work,  and  that  was  the  desire  to 


Introduction  7 

lift  his  fallen  brother  and  to  right  human 
wrongs.  Some  of  these  poems  are  little 
more  than  invitations  to  some  important 
assembly  of  anti-slavery  friends ;  some 
were  composed  and  mailed  almost  before 
the  ink  was  dry,  that  they  might  appear 
in  print  in  time  to  call  the  attention  of 
men  to  an  important  cause  where  prompt 
action  was  necessary  ;  some  are  rhetoric 
on  fire  with  emotion,  having  been  written 
to  kindle  indignation  or  sympathy.  In 
every  case  there  was  an  immediate  pur 
pose  before  the  writer.  The  cause  was 
so  great  that  he  forgot  his  art. 

In  the  following  pages  we  have 
attempted  to  systematize  the  thoughts 
of  this  great  reformer.  We  have  not 
attempted  to  interpret,  at  length,  Whit- 
tier's  thought.  His  lines  are  so  trans 
parent  that  there  is  little  need  of 
interpretation.  Neither  is  it  our  purpose 
to  study  Whittier  as  an  artist.  We  have 
simply  tried  to  gather  into  a  condensed 
statement  his  spiritual  message.  That  it 


8  The  Mind  of  Whittier 

may  minister  to  the  lives  of  others  as 
much  as  it  has  to  his  own  is  the  author's 
earnest  wish. 

CHAUNCEY  J.  HAWKINS. 
Spencer,  Massachusetts. 


THE  INNER  LIGHT 

CITTING  one  day  under  a  pine  tree 
on  the  shore  of  Big  Moose  Lake  in 
the  Adirondacks,  I  was  reading  Whittier. 
Suddenly  I  was  disturbed  by  an  old  man, 
who  approached  and  asked  what  I  was 
reading.  "A  little  poem  entitled  '  Wor 
ship,'  by  Whittier,"  was  my  answer. 
"  Ah  !  I  wonder  if  thou  hast  found  in 
these  solitudes  the  Inner  Light,"  he 
quickly  replied.  If  we  would  under 
stand  the  mind  of  our  poet  we  must 
know  something  of  this  Inner  Light. 

Whittier  was  a  Quaker  and  the 
Quakers  are  mystics.  They  stand 
opposed  to  rationalists.  ~Xh_ey_d£precate 

all    formal    expression __o.f religion,   such 

as  creed  and  ritual,  and  exalt  the  inner 
and  spiritual  side  of  the  religious  life. 
Whittier,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  defines 


io          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

the  distinctive  characteristic  of  Quaker 
ism  to  be  "  the  entire  rejection  of  all 
ceremonial,  the  total  disbelief  in  the 
power  of  pope,  priest  or  elder  to  give  a 
ransom  for  the  soul  of  another."  He 
says  the  time  will  come  when  "  the  world 
will  become  weary  and  disgusted  with 
shams  and  shadows,"  and  "  Love  will 
take  the  place  of  fast,  penance,  long 
prayers,  and  heathenish  sacrifices  ;  altar, 
church,  priest,  and  ritual  will  pass  away  ; 
but  the  human  heart  will  be  the  Holy  of 
Holies,  where  worship  will  still  be  per 
formed,  not  in  set  forms,  and  on  particu 
lar  occasions,  but  daily  and  hourly,  a 
worship  meet  and  acceptable  to  Him 
who  is  not  deceived  by  the  pomp  of  out 
ward  ceremonial,  and  who  loves  mercy 
better  than  sacrifice."  Not  the  divine 
life  as  expressed  through  form  and  insti 
tutions,  but  as  expressed  in  human  lives; 
the  divine  Spirit  bearing  witness  in 
human  souls,  is  the  starting  point  of  their 
faith. 


The  Inner  Light  1 1 

It  is  with  this  simple  faith  that  we 
must  start  in  our  interpretation  of  the 
mind  of  Whittier.  In  "First  Day 
Thoughts "  we  have  a  picture  of  a 
Quaker  Meeting-House.  There  "  never 
hymn  is  sung,  nor  deep-toned  organ 
blown,  nor  censer  swung,  nor  dim  light 
falling  through  the  pictured  pane."  To 
this  place  Whittier  goes,  perchance  to 
hear  no  human  tongue,  but : 

"  There,  syllabled  by  silence,  let  me  hear 

The  still  small  voice  that  reached  the  prophets  ear; 

Read  in  my  heart  a  still  diviner  law 

Than  Israel's  leader  on  his  tables  saw." 

Constantly  he  was  dwelling  upon  this 
thought  of  the  "  Immanence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit."  He  used  many  words  to  ex 
press  the  thought, — "  the  still  small 
voice,"  "the  inward  word,"  "the  spirit  of 
Christ,"  "  the  spirit  of  God,"  but  every 
where  he  means  the  same  thing,  the 
divine  Spirit  in  communion  with  the 
human  soul.  He  makes  no  distinction 
between  the  spiritual  presence  of  God, 


1 2          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

of  Christ,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They 
are  only  different  expressions  for  the 
same  eternal  God. 

In  "  Palestine  "  he  recalls  many  famil 
iar  places  and  then  writes : 

"  But  wherefore  this  dream  of  the  earthly  abode, 
Of  Humanity  clothed  in  the  brightness  of  God  ? 
Were  my  spirit  but  turned  from  the  outward  and 

dim, 
I  could  gaze,  even  now,  on  the  presence  of  Him  ! 

Not  in  clouds  and  in  terrors,  but  gentle  as  when, 
In  love  and  in  meekness,  He  moved  among  men ; 
And  the  voice  which  breathed  peace  to  the  waves 

of  the  sea 
In  the  hush  of  my  spirit  would  whisper  to  me  ! 

Oh,    the   outward   hath  gone !   but   in   glory  and 

power, 

The  spirit  surviveth  the  things  of  an  hour ; 
Unchanging,  undecaying,  its  Pentecost  flame 
On  the  heart's  secret  altar  is  burning  the  same  ! " 

His  revolt  against  all  form  and  ritual 
is  expressed  in  "  The  Vision  of  Echard," 
written  at  his  home  at  "  Oak  Knoll,"  in 
Danvers.  Here  is  expressed  his  great 
faith  in  the  power  of  the  living  Christ : 

"  Ye  bow  to  ghastly  symbols, 
To  cross  and  scourge  and  thorn  ; 


The  Inner  Light  13 

Ye  seek  his  Syrian  manger 
Who  in  the  heart  is  born. 

For  the  dead  Christ,  not  the  living, 

Ye  watch  His  empty  grave, 
Whose  life  alone  within  you 

Has  power  to  bless  and  save. 

O  blind  ones,  outward  groping, 

The  idle  quest  forego  ; 
Who  listens  to  His  inward  voice 

Alone  of  Him  shal/  know. 

My  Gerizim  and  Ebal 

Are  in  each  human  soul, 
The  still,  small  voice  of  blessing, 

And  Sinai's  thunder-roll. 

The  stern  behest  of  duty, 

The  doom-book  open  thrown, 

The  heaven  ye  seek,  the  hell  ye  fear, 
Are  with  yourselves  alone." 

One  of  the  best  illustrations  we  could 
find  to  make  this  truth  of  the  Inner 
Light  intelligible  is  the  relation  of  the 
soul  to  the  body.  The  life  is  immanent 
in  every  part  of  the  physical  frame.  It 
is  more  than  the  body.  It  transcends 
the  body,  rules  it,  and  shall  continue 
when  the  body  returns  to  dust.  Yet  the 


14          The  Mind  of  Wkittier 

soul  does  not  rule  over  the  body  but  in 
it.  So  God  rules  not  over  the  world  but 

in  itjtnot  over  men  but  in  them.     He  is 

more  than  the  world.  He  transcends 
the  material  world  and  man,  yet  He  is 
in  all  men  and  things. 

This  is  not  a  new  idea  in  Christian 
thought  but  is  the  oldest  thought  of  the 
Christian  Church.  The  foundation  of 
the  Greek  theology  was  the  doctrine  of 
the  immanence  of  God.  Justin  taught 
that  God  revealed  himself  to  the  heathen 
world  as  well  as  to  the  Jewish  people, 
that  He  had  done  this  not  only  through 
the  glories  of  nature  but  through  His 
Son,  who  is  the  divine  reason  in  every 
human  creature.  Christ  is  the  universal 
spirit,  the  divine  reason,  who  not  only 
dwells  near  men  but  is  in  all  men, 
"  whose  abiding  presence  in  the  soul 
makes  goodness  possible."  He  is  not 
confined  to  any  place  or  time  but  is  the 
Word  in  all  races  of  men.  There  is  a 
spiritual  Christ  who  is  independent  of 


The  Inner  Light  1 5 

space  or  time,  who  lived  in  all  races 
before  he  was  incarnated  in  the  flesh. 
Hence  there  were  Christians  long  before 
the  birth  of  Jesus.  Whosoever  lived 
according  to  the  truth,  in  whatever  land, 
was  Christian.  There  were  Christians 
among  the  Greeks  such  as  Socrates, 
Heraclitus,  and  kindred  spirits ;  among 
the  barbarians  such  as  Abraham,  Ana 
nias,  Azriah,  and  Elias.  Some  of  these 
Christians,  like  Socrates,  were  martyrs 
for  the  truth.  This  teaching  of  the  early 
church  father  was  only  an  expression  of 
St.  John's  words  :  "  He  was  the  light 
that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world." 

When  we  turn  to  Clement  of  Alexan 
dria,  who  has  been  called  the  father  of 
Greek  theology,  we  find  the  same  idea. 
Christ  is  the  indwelling  Deity,  immanent 
in  the  world.  He  is  in  all  nature  and  in 
all  men ;  in  Him  humanity  has  its  life. 
It  is  not  a  small  portion  of  the  race  that 
is  elected  to  this  high  privilege,  but  the 


1 6          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

race  itself  "  is  unified  and  consecrated  by 
the  visible  traces  of  divine  revelation." 
This  indwelling  Christ  is  the  instructor 
of  men  ;  since  the  creation  of  the  race 
he  has  been  superintending  its  education. 
"  It  was  He  who  spoke  through  Moses 
and  the  Prophets,  and  it  was  He  who 
spoke  in  Greek  philosophy.  In  the  pro 
gressive  education  of  humanity  He 
gave  the  sun  and  moon  to  be  wor 
shipped,  in  order  that  men  might  not  be 
atheistical ;  in  order,  also,  that  they 
might  rise  through  the  lower  worship  to 
something  higher.  He  is  not  the  teacher 
of  a  few  only,  in  some  favored  time  or 
place,  but  He  comes  to  all,  in  all  times 
and  everywhere."  Because  he  believed 
Christ  to  be  in  all  men  and  the  teacher 
of  all,  Clement  did  not  make  any  distinc 
tion  between  natural  and  revealed  religion. 
Christ  was  the  inspiration  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets  but  also  of  the  Greek  philoso 
phers.  Whatever  was  true  and  well  said 
was  from  the  source  of  all  reason,  no 


The  Inner  Light  1 7 

difference  who  said  it  or  where  his  home. 
This  thought  of  the  immanence  of  Christ 
characterized  the  theology  of  the  early 
church  down  to  the  time  of  Augustine. 
Origen  learned  it  from  the  school  of 
Clement,  and  Athanasius  made  it  the 
corner  stone  of  his  theology,  with  which 
he  met  and  overcame  the  philosophies  of 
paganism.  The  same  idea  of  the  imma 
nence  of  the  Inner  Light  breathes  through 
all  the  religious  poetry  of  Whittier. 

"  Nor  bounds,  nor  clime,  nor  creed  thou  knowest, 

Wide  as  our  need  Thy  favors  fall  ; 
The  white  wings  of  the  Holy  Ghost 

Stoop,  seen  or  unseen,  o'er  the  heads  of  all." 

God  is  the  "  Logos  of  the  Greek  and 
Jew,  the  old  sphere-music  which  the 
Simian  heard,  truth  which  the  sage  and 
prophets  saw."  He  is  with  all  "  souls 
that  struggle  and  aspire."  If  God  leaves 
us  it  is  only  because  we  turn  from  Him. 
Truly  the  All-Father  has  not  forgotten 
any  of  his  children  !  He  works  through 
the  religious  consciousness  of  the  race, 


1 8          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

never  compelling  men  but  leading  them 
as  fast  as  they  will  follow.  No  religion 
is  godless.  None  of  them  are  frauds. 
They  are  good  mixed  with  evil,  truth 
with  error.  They  are  all  steps  in  the 
evolution  of  the  religious  life  of  human 
ity. 

Because  of  this  ever-present  spirit  of 
God  in  worship,  man  does  not  need  the 
soulless  breath  of  the  organ,  nor  the 
candle-lit  altar,  nor  ornate  rhetoric-play, 
nor  cold  philosophy,  nor  the  loud-assert 
ing  dogmatist  in  the  pulpit. 

"  I  know  how  well  the  fathers  taught, 
What  work  the  later  schoolmen  wrought ; 
I  reverence  old-time  faith  and  men, 
But  God  is  near  us  now  as  then  ; 
His  force  of  love  is  still  unspent, 
His  hate  of  sin  is  imminent." 

The  Inner  Light  is  the  strength  of  the 
discouraged  and  despairing  soul. 

**  Dream  not,  O  Soul,  that  easy  is  the  task 

Thus  set  before  thee.     If  it  proves  at  length, 
As  well  it  may,  beyond  thy  natural  strength, 
Faint  not,  despair  not.    As  a  child  may  ask 


The  Inner  Light  19 

A  father,  pray  the  Everlasting  Good 

For  light  and  guidance  midst  the  subtle  snares 
Of  sin  thick  planted  in  life's  thorough-fares, 
For  spiritual  strength  and  moral  hardihood  ; 
Still  listening,   through  the  noise   of  time   and 

sense, 

To  the  still  whisper  of  the  Inward  Word  ; 
Bitter  in  blame,  sweet  in  approval  heard, 
Itself  its  own  confirming  evidence  : 
To  health  of  soul  a  voice  to  cheer  and  please, 
To  guilt  the  wrath  of  the  Eumenides." 

It  was  Whittier's  conception  of  the 
immanence  of  God  in  the  human  soul 
which  gave  stability  to  his  faith  in  times 
of  religious  change.  The  passing  of  old 
and  established  dogmas  has  always  been 
a  source  of  skepticism.  Whenever  the 
breaking  up  period  comes  in  a  theologi 
cal  system,  many  men  lose  their  faith, 
while  others  are  disturbed  for  fear  reli 
gion  will  cease  to  exert  any  power  over 
the  consciences  of  men.  We  are  in 
such  a  period.  Some  dogmas  are  passing 
away  and  many  others  are  being  seriously 
questioned.  The  Bible  has  been  sub 
jected  to  criticism  until  our  traditional  the- 


20          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

ories  of    inspiration  are  already  shaken. 
The  theory  of  the  atonement  which  was 
the  effective  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
the   preachers  of   the   last  century,    and 
which  was  so  fruitful  of  great  revivals,  is 
never   heard  today  in  large   numbers  of 
our   pulpits,    while    in    others    it    is  pre 
sented  in  greatly  modified  form.     These 
changes  are  the  source  of  anxiety  on  the 
part  of  many  sincere  souls,  who  sometimes 
feel  that  nothing  awaits  us  except  dark 
ness  and  spiritual  chaos.  But  Whittier  saw 
in  all  this  struggle  something  much  bet 
ter  and  in   the  noisy  cry  "  Great  Pan  is 
dead  !  "  he  heard  only  the  wail  of  error. 
To    him    religious    unrest    was    nothing 
more  than  the  disturbance  of  the  waters, 
caused  by  the  angel  sent  from  God.    The 
sands   must   drift ;   the  rocks   alone  will 
remain.     The  storm  clouds  will  pass  and 
as    the    mists    disappear    the    permanent 
stars    will    be    left  behind.     The   Inner 
Light   can    never    fail;    creeds    may    be 
outgrown,    the    legends    and    myths    of 


The  Inner  Light  21 

childhood  may  die,  but  God  will  never 
fail,  and  His  testimony  will  never  pass 
from  the  human  heart. 

"  Therefore  I  trust,  although  the  outward  sense 
Both  true  and  false  seems  shaken  ;  I  will  hold 
With  newer  light  my  reverence  of  the  old 

And  calmly  wait  the  births  of  Providence. 

No  gain  is  lost ;  the  clear-eyed  saints  look  down 
Untroubled   on   the  wreck  of    schemes  and 

creeds  ; 
Love  yet  remains,  its  rosary  of  good  deeds 

Counting  in  task-field  and  o'erpeopled  town. 

Truth  has  charmed  life  ;  the  Inward  Word  sur 
vives, 

And,  day  by  day,  its  revelation  brings  ; 
Faith,  hope,  and  charity,  whatsoever  things 

Which  cannot  be  shaken,  stand.     Still  holy  lives 

Reveal  the  Christ  of  whom  the  letter  told, 

And  the  new  gospel  verifies  the  old." 

What  if  "  old  faiths,  long  outworn  "  be 
thrown  away  and  altars  overturned, 

"  Have  ye  not  still  my  witness 
Within  yourselves  always  ?  " 

Whittier  held  to  the  idea  of  the  Inner 
Light  not  only  in  theory  but  also  in 
practice.  Once  give  him  the  conviction 
that  he  was  being  led  by  it  and  nothing 


22          The  Mind  of  Whit  tier 

could  turn  him  aside.  When  once  he 
decided  to  do  a  thing  and  was  convinced 
that  the  spirit  was  leading  him,  nothing 
could  turn  him  from  it.  To  him 

"  The  one  unpardonable  sin 
Is  to  deny  the  Word  of  God  within." 

The  ultimate  authority  in  religion  is 
the  experience  of  God  in  the  human 
soul.  This  is  the  conclusion  of  the  poem 
on  "  Questions  of  Life."  Whittier  raised 
some  of  the  old  questions  that  have 
always  been  wrapped  in  mystery. 
Whence  came  I  ?  Whither  do  I  go  ? 
What  place  has  man  in  this  vast  uni 
verse  ?  Is  he  a  part  of  this  universal 
life,  which  mounts  the  sap  from  forest 
roots  and  makes  green  the  native  dells* 
which  gives  life  blood  to  the  new-born 
leaves  and  breathes  in  the  wild  bird's 
song?  Or  is  man  imprisoned  in  a 
separate  consciousness  ?  The  Sphinx 
does  not  solve  the  question  which  she 
propounds.  The  vaulted  mystery  throws 


The  Inner  Light  23 

back  in  echo  the  question  she  receives. 
If  we  turn  to  nature  she  mocks  us  in  our 
eager  search.  If  we  ask  the  prophets  of 
the  Orient  or  consult  the  rolls  buried  in 
the  painted  tombs  and  pyramids  of 
Egypt,  still  the  mysteries  are  bolted. 
Dust  hath  no  answer  from  the  dust. 
We  know  what  of  life  and  death  the 
demon  taught  to  Socrates,  what  the 
solemn-thoughted  Plato  said,  we  read 
the  scroll  of  Hebrew  seer  and  bard,  yet 
the  truth  is  never  known.  We  seek  from 
all  these  outward  sources  for  an  answer 
but  it  is  never  found.  We  seek  the  clue 
to  find  with  groping  fingers  of  the  blind. 
Is  there  then  no  answer?  Yes,  in  the 
inner  silence  of  the  heart. 

"  To  Him,  from  wandering  long  and  wild, 
I  come,  an  over-wearied  child, 
In  cool  and  shade  His  peace  to  find, 
Like  dew-fall  settling  on  my  mind. 
Assured  that  all  I  know  is  best, 
And  humbly  trusting  for  the  rest, 
I  turn  from  Fancy's  cloud  built  scheme, 
Dark  creed,  and  mournful  eastern  dream 


24          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

Of  power,  impersonal  and  cold, 

Controlling  all,  itself  controlled, 
Maker  and  slave  of  iron  laws, 
Alike  the  subject  and  the  cause  ; 

From  vain  philosophies,  that  try 

The  sevenfold  gates  of  mystery, 
And,  baffled  ever,  babble  still, 
Word-prodigal  of  fate  and  will ; 

From  Nature,  and  her  mockery,  Art, 

And  book  and  speech  of  men  apart, 

To  the  still  witness  in  my  heart ; 
With  reverence  waiting  to  behold 
His  Avatar  of  love  untold, 
The  Eternal  Beauty  new  and  old." 

We  must  not  conclude  from  this  lan 
guage  of  mysticism  that  Whittier  was  an 
impractical  dreamer.  We  shall  fail  to 
understand  his  message  if  we  think  that 
he  sat  in  meditation,  passively  waiting 
for  the  spirit  of  Gorf  fp  ^r>m^  ;nf^  his 
heart  and  make  all  truth  plain.  He  had 
nothing  ot  that  oriental  spirit  which 
waits  in  aimless  silence,  trying  to  lose 
itself  in  the  limitless  ocean  of  spirit. 
The  Inner  Light  reveals  truth  only  to 
the  active  soul.  Man  finds  truth  only  in 
love  and  service. 


The  Inner  Light  25 

Not  to  ease  and  aimless  quiet 
Doth  that  inward  answer  tend, 

But  to  works  of  love  and  duty 
As  our  being's  end  ; 


Not  to  idle  dreams  and  trances, 
Length  of  face  and  solemn  tone, 

But  to  Faith,  in  daily  striving 
And  performance  shown." 

Whittier's  idea  of  the  Bible  must  be 
understood  in  connection  with  his 
thought  of  the  Inner  Light.  No  poet 
has  known  his  Bible  better,  or  been 
more  influenced  by  it.  As  Steadman 
has  said  :  "  The  Bible  was  rarely  absent 
from  his  verse,  and  its  spirit,  never." 
When  he  was  a  boy  he  was  able  to  tell 
the  Bible  story,  from  Genesis  to  Revela 
tion,  and  could  quote  the  greater  part  of 
it.  His  words  in  "  Miriam  "  indicate 
how  much  he  valued  the  Sacred  Book : 

"  We  search  the  world  for  truth  ;  we  cull 
The  good,  the  pure,  the  beautiful, 
From  graven  stone  and  written  scroll, 
From  all  old  flower-fields  of  the  soul ; 


26          The  Mind  of  Wkittier 

And  weary  seekers  of  the  best, 
We  come  back  ladened  from  our  quest, 
To  find  that  all  the  sages  said 
Is  in  the  Book  our  mothers  read." 

But  while  Whittier  valued  the  Scrip 
tures  so  much,  they  were  not  for  him 
11  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice."  That 
was  "  none  other  than  the  living,  omni 
present  spirit  of  God."  The  Scriptures 
were  subordinate  and  secondary  to  this 
indwelling  Spirit.  Indeed  the  Scriptures 
can  be  understood  only  as  they  are 
interpreted  by  the  divine  Spirit. 

"  Only  when  on  form  and  word  obscure 

Falls  from  above  the  white  supernal  light 
We  read  the  mystic  characters  aright, 
And  life  informs  the  silent  portraiture, 
Until  we  pause  at  last,  awe-held,  before 
The  One  ineffable  Face,  love,  wonder,  and  adore." 

He  believed  in  the  Scriptures  because 
"  we  find  in  them  the  eternal  precepts  of 
the  divine  spirit,  declared  and  repeated, 
to  which  our  consciences  bear  witness. 
They  testify  of  Christ  within.  We 
believe  in  the  Scriptures  because  they 


The  Inner  Light  27 

believe  in  us,  because  they  repeat  the 
warnings  and  admonitions  and  promises 
of  the  indwelling  Light  and  Truth, 
because  we  find  the  law  and  prophets  in 
our  souls."  Thus  Whittier  writes  : 

"  I  pray  for  faith,  I  long  to  trust ; 

I  listen  with  my  heart,  and  hear 
A  voice  without  a  sound :  *  Be  just, 
Be  true,  be  merciful,  revere 
The  Word  within  thee :  God  is  near  ! '  " 


NATURE    OF   THE    INNER 
LIGHT 

'  I  ^  H  E  nature  of  the  Inner  Light  is 
essential  goodness.  In  the  earlier 
part  of  his  life,  Whittier  was  surrounded 
by  a  Calvinistic  conception  of  God,  and 
he  rebelled  against  it.  We  find  this 
thought  expressed  in  the  "  Minister's 
Daughter."  He  tells  of  a  minister  who 
in  his  morning  sermon  spoke  of  the  fall, 
of  how  henceforth  the  wrath  of  God 
rested  on  every  soul,  and  of  how  all  were 
doomed  to  eternal  loss  save  a  chosen 
few.  In  the  afternoon  he  went  for  a 
walk  with  his  daughter.  It  was  in  the 
springtime,  when  the  apple  trees  were  in 
blossom  and  the  meadows  were  fresh  and 
green.  On  all  this  glory  the  minister 
looked,  and  then  he  said  to  his  daughter : 


Nature  of  the  Inner  Light      29 

"  How  good  is  the  Lord  who  gives  us 

These  gifts  from  His  hands,  my  child  !  " 

The  child  replied  : 

"  O  father  !  these  pretty  blossoms 
Are  very  wicked,  I  think. 

Had  there  been  no  garden  of  Eden 

There  never  had  been  a  fall ; 
And  if  never  a  tree  had  blossomed 

God  would  have  loved  us  all." 

The  minister  rebukes  his  child : 

"  By  His  decree  man  fell :  " 
therefore  whether  to  us  comes 

"  Joy  or  pain,  or  light  or  shadow, 
We  must  fear  and  love  Him  still." 

"  O,  I  fear  Him,"  said  the  daughter, 

"  And  I  try  to  love  Him  too  ; 
But  I  wish  He  was  good  and  gentle, 
Kind  and  loving  as  you." 

From  these  words  of  his  little  daughter 
and  from  the  beauty  of  nature,  the 
minister  learned  the  lesson  of  love,  and 
after  this 

"  The  dread  Ineffable  Glory 

Was  infinite  Goodness  alone." 


30          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

In  "  Revelation "  he  sums  up  his 
thought  of  the  character  of  God : 

"  No  picture  to  my  aid  I  call, 

I  shape  no  image  in  my  prayers ; 
I  only  know  in  Him  is  all 
Of  life,  light,  beauty,  everywhere, 
Eternal  Goodness  here  and  there." 

To  be  able  to  believe  in  the  goodness 
of  God  in  the  presence  of  so  much 
suffering  is  not  an  easy  task  for  faith. 
There  are  few  writers  who  have  been  free 
from  the  spirit  of  pessimism.  Tennyson 
could  not  carry  forward  the  optimism  of 
"  Locksley  Hall." 

"  Lost  the  cry  of «  Forward,  Forward, '  lost  within 
a  growing  gloom ; 

Lost,  or  only  heard  in  silence  from  the  silence  of 
the  tomb. 

'  Forward  '  sang  the  voices  then,  and  of  the  many 
mine  was  one, 

Let  us  hush  this  cry  of  '  Forward  '  till  ten  thou 
sand  years  have  gone." 

The  attempt  to  harmonize  the  facts  of 
evil  and  of  human  suffering  with  the 
goodness  and  love  of  God  has  been  one 
of  the  greatest  problems  of  Christian 


Nature  of  the  Inner  Light      31 

thought.  But  the  optimistic  faith  of 
Whittier  had  no  difficulty  in  harmoniz 
ing  the  two  thoughts.  He  saw  the 
wrong  that  existed  about  him,  he  heard 
the  groan  and  travail-cries, 

"  Yet,  in  the  maddening  maze  of  things, 

And  tossed  by  storm  and  flood, 
To  one  fixed  trust  my  spirit  clings 
I  know  that  God  is  good  ! 

And  so  beside  the  Silent  Sea 

I  wait  the  muffled  oar : 
No  harm  from  Him  can  come  to  me 

On  ocean  or  on  shore. 

I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 

Their  fronded  palms  in  air ; 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 

Beyond  His  love  and  care." 

He  had  great  faith  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  goodness.  He  said  :  "  Surely 
God  would  not  permit  His  children  to 
suffer  if  it  were  not  to  work  out  for  them 
the  highest  good.  For  God  never  does, 
nor  surfers  to  be  done,  but  that  which 
we  would  do  if  we  could  see  the  end  of 
all  events  as  well  as  He.  God's  love  is 


32          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

so  infinitely  greater  than  mine  that  I 
cannot  fear  for  His  children,  and  when  I 
long  to  help  some  poor,  suffering,  erring 
fellow-creature,  I  am  consoled  with  the 
thought  that  His  great  heart  of  love  is 
more  than  mine  can  be,  and  so  I  rest  in 
peace." 

In  "  Revelation  "  he  wrote  : 

"  I  know  He  is,  and  what  He  is, 

Whose  one  great  purpose  is  the  good 
Of  all.     I  rest  my  soul  on  His 
Immortal  Love  and  Fatherhood  ; 
And  trust  Him  as  His  children  should. 

I  fear  no  more.     The  clouded  face 
Of  nature  smiles ;  through  all  her  things 

Of  time  and  space  and  sense  I  trace 
The  moving  of  the  Spirit's  wings, 
And  hear  the  song  of  hope  she  sings," 

We  are  not  to  suppose  that  Whittier 
never  had  a  doubt  concerning  the  great 
problems  of  religion.  He  is  constantly 
raising  questions  which  he  confesses  his 
inability  to  solve. 

"  The  same  old  baffling  questions  ! 
O  my  friend,  I  cannot  answer  them," 


Nature  of  the  Inner  Light      33 

Few  men  have  ever  wrestled  in  spirit 
more  than  did  this  deeply  religious  soul. 
He  spent  one  entire  winter  discussing, 
with  his  near  friends  about  the  fire  at 
his  home  in  Danvers,  the  question  of 
immortality.  Those  who  entered  into 
these  discussions  tell  us  of  the  struggles 
through  which  he  passed.  But  while 
great  doubts  troubled  his  mind  he  was  by 
nature  intensely  religious  and  his  religious 
feelings  always  gained  the  ascendency. 
Hence,  confessing  his  inability  to  solve 
the  problems  which  disturbed  him,  he 
would  turn  from  them  with  childlike 
trust  to  the  faith  learned  at  his  mother's 
knees. 

'"All  is  of  God  that  is,  and  is  to  be  ; 
And  God  is  good.'     Let  this  suffice  us  still, 
Resting  in  childlike  trust  upon  His  will 
Who   moves  to  His  great  ends  unth waited  by 
the  ill!" 

Augustine  raised  the  old  question  of 
the  origin  of  evil.  "  What  is  evil,  and 
whence  comes  it,  since  God  the  Good 


34          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

hath  created  all  things?  Why  made  He 
anything  at  all  of  evil,  and  not  rather  by 
His  Almightiness  caused  it  not  to  be?" 
This  question  Whittier  is  compelled  to 
confront  but  he  cannot  find  an  answer. 
"  From  sea  and  earth  comes  no  reply." 
All  we  know  is  that  from  age  to  age 
descends  the  sad  bequest  from  sire  to 
son.  Through  everything  this  dark 
thread  runs.  Reason  cannot  solve  the 
question.  Faith  alone  can  surmount  the 
difficulty. 

"Oh,  why  and  whither  ?     God  knows  all ; 

I  only  know  that  He  is  good 
And  that  whatever  may  befall 

Or  here  or  there,  must  be  the  best  that  could. 

For  He  is  merciful  as  just ; 

And  so,  by  faith  correcting  sight, 
I  bow  before  His  will,  and  trust 

Howe'er  they  seem  He  doeth  all  things  right. 

And  dare  to  hope  that  He  will  make 
The  rugged  smooth,  the  doubtful  plain ; 

His  mercy  never  quite  forsake  ; 

His  healing  visit  every  realm  of  pain  ; 

That  suffering  is  not  His  revenge 
Upon  His  creatures  weak  and  frail, 


Nature  of  the  Inner  Light      35 

Sent  on  a  pathway  new  and  strange 
With  feet  that  wander  and  with  eyes  that  fail ; 

That  o'er  the  crucible  of  pain, 

Watches  the  tender  eye  of  Love, 
The  slow  transmitting  of  the  chain 

Whose  links  are  iron  below  to  gold  above ! " 

The  best  explanation  he  could  find  of 
the  ways  of  Providence  was  in  the  train 
ing  and  discipline  which  he  received 
from  his  mother.  When  a  boy  he  could 
not  understand  why  his  mother's  hand 
should  restrain  him  in  his  selfish  moods. 
He  complained  bitterly  of  her  chasten- 
ings.  But  when  he  grew  wiser  and 
looked  across  the  years  he  saw  that  his 
childhood's  needs  were  best  known  by 
his  mother,  and  tTiat  all  her  chastening 
was  with  the  hand  of  love.  This  inter- 
preted  for  him  the  greater  Providence. 

u  I  wait,  in  His  good  time  to  see 
That  as  my  mother  dealt  with  me 
So  with  His  children  dealeth  He. 

I  bow  myself  beneath  His  hand  : 
That  pain  itself  was  wisely  planned 
I  feel,  and  partly  understand." 


36          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

The  nature  of  this  Inner  Light  is 
learned  from  the  testimony  of  human 
character.  The  divine  nature  can  be 
known  only  through  human  nature,  and 
must  be  expressed  in  terms  of  the 
human. 

"  The  riddle  of  the  world  is  understood 

Only  by  him  who  feels  that  God  is  good, 

As  only  he  can  feel  who  makes  his  love 

The  ladder  of  his  faith,  and  climbs  above 

On  th'  rounds  of  his  best  instincts  ;  draws  no  line 

Between  mere  human  goodness  and  divine, 

But,  judging  God  by  what  in  him  is  best, 

With  a  child's  trust  leans  on  a  Father's  breast." 

He  depended,  not  on  historical  revela 
tion,  nor  theology,  nor  creed,  for  a  proof 
of  the  divine  Being.  ^He  knew  God  in 
his  experience  and  found  the  divine 
nature  to  be  like  the  best  in  his  own 
nature.  The  minister  in  "  The  Minister's 
Daughter "  found  the  true  character  of 
God  not  in  creed  nor  book ;  following 
these  he  had  erred.  It  was  through  the 
words  of  his  daughter,  "  But  I  wish  he 
was  good  and  gentle,  kind  and  loving  as 


Nature  of  the  Inner  Light      37 

you  "  that  he  learned  the  nature  of  God. 
Whittier  tried  to  solve  the  mystery  of 
the  divine  nature  as  manifested  in  the 
Trinity  but  his  study  of  Aquinas  or  Cal 
vin  or  Hippo's  saint  brought  no  light  to 
him.  Discouraged  in  his  search  he  says : 

"  I  shut  my  grave  Aquinas  fast ; 
The  monkish  gloss  of  ages  past, 
The  schoolman's  creed  aside  I  cast, 

And  my  heart  answered,  "Lord  I  see 
How  Three  are  One,  and  One  is  Three  ; 
The  riddle  hath  been  read  to  me  !  " 

In  "  The  Friend's  Burial  "  he  says : 

"  The  dear  Lord's  best  interpreters 

Are  humble  human  souls  ; 
The  Gospel  of  a  life  like  hers 
Is  more  than  books  or  scrolls. 

From  scheme  and  creed  the  light  goes  out, 

The  saintly  fact  survives  ; 
The  blessed  Master  none  can  doubt 

Revealed  in  Holy  lives." 


JESUS  CHRIST 


always  maintained  that 
he  was  an  orthodox  Quaker.  In 
1834  he  wrote  to  a  friend  concerning  the 
Hicksites,  making  a  strong  confession  of 
his  orthodoxy.  "  What  will  it  avail  us  if 
while  boasting  of  our  soundness  and  of 
our  enmity  to  the  delusion  of  Hicksism, 
we  neglect  to  make  a  practical  applica 
tion  of  our  belief  to  ourselves  ?  I  do 
not  claim  to  be  any  better  for  my  ortho 
dox  principles."  Hicksism  was  the  uni- 
tarian  movement  among  the  Quakers  and 
here  Whittier  positively  declares  that  he 
is  not  a  follower  of  the  Hicksites  but  is 
orthodox.  Later  in  life  he  wrote  to 
John  Bright  :  "  Some  of  us  are  still 
Friends  of  the  Fox  and  Penn  and  Bar 
clay  school."  In  his  last  will  he  used 
words  and  made  requests  which  imply 


Jesus  Christ  39 

that  he  was  an  orthodox  Quaker.  In 
writing  to  Gail  Hamilton  about  her  book, 
"What  Think  Ye  of  Christ?"  he  said: 
"  My  own  mind  had,  from  the  same  evi 
dence  which  thee  aduce,  become  con 
vinced  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  but  I 
cannot  look  upon  Him  as  other  than  a 
man  like  ourselves,  through  whom  the 
divine  was  made  miraculously  manifest. 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  a  man,  the  Christ 
was  a  God, —  a  new  revelation  of  the 
Eternal  in  time."  He  was  the  supreme 
manifestation  of  God  in  our  humanity 
and  in  time.  He  is  "  Humanity  clothed 
in  the  brightness  of  God."  It  is  in  Him 
that  we  see  the  essential  character  of 
God: 

"  We  know  in  thee  the  fatherhood 
And  heart  of  God  revealed." 

To  another  friend  he  wrote:  "  My  ground 
of  hope  for  myself  and  for  humanity  is 
that  divine  fulness  of  love  which  was 
manifested  in  the  life,  teachings,  and  self- 
sacrifice  of  Christ."  Again  he  wrote : 


40          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

"God  is  One;  just,  holy,  merciful,  eter 
nal,  and  almighty,  Creator,  Father  of  all 
things;  Christ,  the  same  eternal  One, 
manifested  in  our  Humanity  and  in 
Time  ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  same 
Christ,  manifested  within  us,  the  Divine 
Teacher,  the  Living  Word,  the  Light 
that  lighteth  every  man  that  comes  into 
the  world."  In  the  light  of  these  words 
we  can  better  understand  his  verse  : 

"  The  homage  that  we  render  Thee 

Is  still  our  Father's  own  ; 
No  jealous  claim  or  rivalry 
Divides  the  cross  and  Throne," 

Christ  is  : 

"  Most  Human  and  yet  most  divine, 
The  flower  of  man  and  God." 

Certainly  no  words  could  give  a  more 
dignified  place  to  Christ  than  these  taken 
from  "The  Crucifixion  :  " 

"  Well  may  the  cavern-depths  of  Earth 
Be  shaken,  and  her  mountains  nod  ; 
Well  may  the  sheeted  dead  come  forth 
To  see  the  suffering  son  of  God  ! 


Jesus  Christ  41 

Well  may  the  temple-shrine  grow  dim, 
And  shadows  veil  the  Cherubim, 
When  He,  the  chosen  one  of  heaven, 
A  sacrifice  for  guilt  is  given  !  " 

Some  of  the  names  which  Whittier 
applied  to  Christ  give  a  key  to  the  inter 
pretation  of  his  thought.  He  calls  Him 
"Christ  of  God,  the  Holy  One,"  "  Suffer 
ing  Son  of  God,"  "The  Lowly  and  Just," 
"  Humanity  clothed  in  the  brightness  of 
God,"  "Loved  of  the  Father,"  "When 
the  Holy  One  the  garments  of  the  flesh 
put  on,"  "  Christ,  the  Rock  of  Ages," 
"Elder  Brother,"  "The  World's  Over- 
comer,"  "  Immortal  Love,"  "  Light  Di 
vine,"  and  "  Healer."  From  these  titles, 
which  Whittier  is  constantly  applying  to 
Christ,  we  may  gather  this  poet's  concep 
tion  of  the  nature  and  work  of  the  heav 
enly  Master. 

Whittier  never  tires  of  emphasizing 
the  presence  and  immanence  of  Christ  in 
the  lives  of  all  men.  The  Christ  of  his 
tory  is  gone.  He  shall  return  no  more  in 


42          The  Mind  of  Whit  tier 

the  flesh.  In  vain  through  the  centuries 
have  men  looked  for  His  return  upon 
the  clouds  of  glory.  "  The  world's  long 
hope  is  dim."  The  Christ  of  the  system 
maker  has  fallen  again  and  again.  The 
letter  fails  and  every  symbol  wanes  but 

"  The  Spirit  over-brooding  all, 
Eternal  Love  remains. 

In  joy  of  inward  peace,  or  sense 

Of  sorrow  over  sin, 
He  is  His  own  best  evidence, 

His  witness  is  within. 

No  fable  old,  nor  mythic  lore, 
Nor  dream  of  bards  and  seers, 

No  dead  fact  stranded  on  the  shore 
Of  the  oblivious  years ; — 

But  warm,  sweet,  tender,  even  yet 

A  present  help  is  He  ; 
And  faith  has  still  its  Olivet, 

And  love  its  Galilee." 

The  presence  of  Christ  in  our  human 
ity  is  also  taught  in  "  The  Meeting  :  " 

"  That  the  dear  Christ  dwells  not  afar, 
The  king  of  some  remoter  star, 
Listening,  at  times,  with  flattered  ear 
To  homage  wrung  from  selfish  fear, 


Jesus  Christ  43 

But  here,  amidst  the  poor  and  blind, 
The  bound  and  suffering  of  our  kind, 
In  works  we  do,  in  prayers  we  pray, 
Life  of  our  Life,  He  lives  today." 

Christ  is  such  an  One  that  still  men 
may  commune  with  Him  : 

*'  Yet,  Loved  of  the  Father,  Thy  Spirit  is  near 
To  the  meek,  and  the  lowly,  and  penitent  here  ; 
And  the  voice  of  Thy  love  is  the  same  even  now 
As  at  Bethany's  tomb  or  on  Olivet's  brow." 

The  great  example  for  human  conduct 
is  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  When  we  follow 
"  Him  whose  holy  work  was  doing  good," 
then  the  wide  earth  will  become  our 
Father's  temple  and  each  life  will  be  a 
"  psalm  of  gratitude." 

"  Then  shall  all  shackles  fall ;  the  stormy  clangor 
Of  wild  war  music  o'er  the  earth  shall  cease  ; 
Love  shall  tread  out  the  baleful  fire  of  anger, 
And  in  its  ashes  plant  the  tree  of  peace  ! " 

Not  only  is  Christ  the  example  for 
human  conduct ;  He  is  the  ultimate  stand 
ard  by  which  we  must  test  our  lives. 
As  there  are  a  few  great  pictures  by 
which  we  approve  or  condemn  all  other 


44          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

works  of  the  painter's  brush,  a  few  great 
poems  by  which  the  worth  of  all  poetry 
is  judged,  so  Christ  is  the  divine  ideal  by 
which  all  lives  must  be  measured : 

"  Thou  judgest  us  ;  Thy  purity 

Doth  all  our  lusts  condemn ; 
The  love  that  draws  us  nearer  Thee 
Is  hot  with  wrath  to  them. 

Our  thoughts  lie  open  to  Thy  sight ; 

And,  naked  to  Thy  glance, 
Our  secret  sins  are  in  the  light 

Of  Thy  pure  countenance." 

Constantly  Whittier  was  dwelling 
upon  the  thought  that  Christ  was  the 
Saviour  and  Healer  of  men  and  nations. 
It  is  only  the  Christ  who  can  save 
men  from  superstitions  of  the  world. 
Whittier  looks  over  the  nations  of  the 
earth  and  sees  man  kneeling  and  trem 
bling  by  his  altars  of  stone,  trying  to 
appease  his  God  by  the  sprinkling  of 
blood.  Such  worship  is  only  the  "  faith 
lessness  of  fear."  It  rises  from  a  picture 
which  man  paints  of  a  God  of  torment. 


Jes^ts  Christ  45 

"  Fade,  pomp  of  dreadful  imagery 
Wherewith  mankind  have  deified 
Their  hate,  and  selfishness,  and  pride ! 
Let  the  scared  dreamer  wake  to  see 
The  Christ  of  Nazareth  at  his  side  ! " 

When  this  worship  inspired  by  fear  shall 
disappear,  then  shall  come  the  true  wor 
ship.  Humanity  shall  learn  to  look  to 
Christ,  the  beautiful  and  good  ; 

"  It  yet  shall  touch  His  garment's  fold, 
And  feel  the  heavenly  Alchemist 
Transform  its  very  dust  to  gold." 

Humanity  can  never  reach  its  best 
apart  from  Christ.  Only  as  this  heavenly 
Vine  strikes  its  roots  deep  into  our 
earthly  sod  can  we  ever  expect  to  bring 
forth  the  full  fruit  of  our  humanity.  He 
is  Love  ineffable,  the  fountain  of  love 
and  life. 

"  No  pride  of  self  Thy  service  hath, 

No  place  for  me  and  mine  ; 
Our  human  strength  is  weakness,  death 
Our  life,  apart  from  Thine. 

Apart  from  Thee  all  gain  is  loss, 
All  labor  vainly  done  ; 


46         The  Mind  of  Whittier 

The  solemn  shadow  of  Thy  cross 
Is  better  than  the  sun. 

Alone,  O  Love  ineffable  ! 

Thy  saving  name  is  given  ; 
To  turn  aside  from  Thee  is  hell, 

To  walk  with  Thee  is  heaven  !  " 

.* 

Christ  is  still  the  healer  of  humanity's 
ills: 

"  For  lo  !  in  human  hearts  unseen 

The  Healer  dwelleth  still, 
And  they  who  make  His  temples  clean 
The  best  subserve  His  will." 

A  woman  "  dwarfed  and  wronged  and 
stained  with  ill,"  he  bids  rise  in  the  name 
of  Christ  and  reclaim  her  lost  soul. 

"  In  His  name, 

Rise  up,  and  break  thy  bonds  of  shame. 
Art  weak  ?    He's  strong.     Art  fearful  ?    Hear 
The  world's  O'ercomer  :     '  Be  of  cheer  ! ' 
What  lip  shall  judge  when  He  approves  ? 
Who  dare  to  scorn  the  child  He  loves  ?  " 

Whittier  found  no  satisfaction  in  the 
orthodox  views  of  the  atonement.  God 
is  not  an  eternal  judge  characterized  only 
by  a  sense  of  justice,  who  demands  of 
sinful  humanity  a  full  reparation  for  its 


Jesus  Chris  I  47 

disobedience,  but  He  is  the  good  Father 
who  does  all  that  can  be  done  to  lead 
His  erring  children  to  a  better  life. 

"  Ye  praise  His  justice  ;  even  such 

His  pitying  love  I  deem  : 
Ye  seek  a  king  ;  I  fain  would  touch 
The  robe  that  hath  no  seam. 

Ye  see  the  curse  that  overbroods 

A  world  of  pain  and  loss ; 
I  hear  our  Lord's  beatitudes 

And  prayer  upon  the  cross." 

For  the  purpose  of  raising  men  to  higher 
life  Jesus  Christ  came  into  human  flesh, 
and  is  the  true  redeemer  of  mankind. 
While  Whittier  could  not  have  subscribed 
to  the  so-called  New  England  doctrine  of 
the  atonement,  he  could  have  subscribed 
to  the  seventh  chapter  of  Romans. 
What  Paul  told  here  in  the  language  of 
experience,  Whittier  in  the  following 
lines  told  in  the  words  of  a  poet : 

"  Thou,  O  Elder  Brother  !  who 
In  Thy  flesh  our  trial  knew, 
Thou,  who  hast  been  touched  by  these 
Our  most  sad  infirmities, 


48          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

Thou  alone  the  gulf  canst  span 

In  the  dual  heart  of  man, 

And  between  the  soul  and  sense 

Reconcile  all  difference, 

Change  the  dream  of  me  and  mine 

For  the  truth  of  Thee  and  Thine, 

And,  through  chaos,  doubt,  and  strife, 

Interfuse  Thy  calm  of  life. 

God  is  not  to  be  reconciled  with  man 
but  man  is  to  be  reconciled  with  himself 
and  the  will  of  his  Creator,  the  will 
of  his  Creator  being  the  very  laws  of 
man's  individual  and  social  constitution. 
Hence  the  redemptive  forces  must  work 
within  man  rather  than  externally  upon 
him.  They  must  be  forces  which  make 
possible  the  triumph  of  the  spiritual  over 
the  animal  nature,  love  over  selfishness, 
temperance  over  unregulated  appetite 
and  passion,  truth  over  ignorance,  virtue 
over  vice.  Christ  in  us  is  the  hope  of 
glory.  The  victorious  Christ  in  the 
wilderness  of  temptation,  the  merciful 
Christ  in  Galilee,  the  suffering  Christ  on 
the  cross,  have  redemptive  value  just 
to  the  extent  that  they  become  forces 


Jesus  Christ  49 

working  within  our  lives,  and  enable  us 
to  live  like  Christ. 

It  is  not  a  Christ  who  can  satisfy  God 
because  we  have  violated  a  law  external 
to  our  natures  that  we  want,  but  a  Christ 
who  can  help  us  to  overcome  sin  which 
is  waging  a  battle  in  our  hearts.  Every 
life  is  a  battle  ground  between  the  animal 
and  the  spiritual,  between  selfishness, 
and  pride,  and  vanity  on  the  one  hand, 
and  on  the  other,  those  virtues  which 
belong  to  a  son  of  God.  The  penalty 
cannot  be  taken  away  unless  the  causes 
of  the  conflict  are  removed.  What  we 
want  is  a  Christ  who  will  give  us  more 
life,  more  strength  to  attain  virtue,  wis 
dom,  purity,  love ;  a  Christ  who  will  be 
a  resident  force  in  our  lives,  driving  out 
sensuality,  pride,  selfishness,  and  passion, 
and  filling  us  with  life  and  life  in  its 
abundance.  It  is  of  such  a  Christ  that 
Whittier  constantly  sings. 

Phillips  Brooks  gave  this  definition  of 
salvation  :  "  Its  one  idea  is  health.     Not 


50         The  Mind  of  Whittier 

rescue  from  suffering,  not  plucking  out  of 
the  fire,  not  deportation  to  some  strange, 
beautiful  region  where    the  winds   blow 
with  other  influences  and  the  skies  drop 
with  other  dews,  but   health,— the  cool, 
calm  vigor  of   the    normal    human    life; 
the   making  of  the  man  to  be   himself  ; 
the  calling  up  out  of  the    depth    of   his 
being  and  the  filling  with  vitality  of  that 
self  which  is  truly  he,— this  is  salvation. 
The  Christian   is    nothing   but   the    true 
man.     Human  courage,  human  patience, 
human  trustiness,  human  humility,— these 
filled  with  the  fire  of  God  make  the  graces 
of  the  Christian  life.    The  Christian  graces 
are  nothing  but  the  natural  virtues  held 
up  into  the  light  of  Christ."     How  much 
Brooks  was  influenced  by  the  thought  of 
Whittier,  we  shall  probably  never  know. 
But   this  is   certainly  true,  that  it  would 
be  difficult  to  give  a  better  description 
of    Whittier's    conception     of    salvation 
than  in  these  words  of  Phillips  Brooks. 
Whittier  writes  : 


Jesus  Christ  51 

"  That  to  be  saved  is  only  this, — 
Salvation  from  our  selfishness, 

From  more  than  elemental  fire, 

The  soul's  unsanctified  desire, 
From  sin  itself,  and  not  the  pain 
That  warns  us  of  its  chafing  chain." 

Christ,  alone,  is  the  great  source  of 
strength  for  men  and  the  Saviour  from 
sin. 

"  The  healing  of  His  seamless  dress 

Is  by  our  beds  of  pain  ; 
We  touch  Him  in  life's  throng  and  press, 
And  we  are  whole  again." 


OPTIMISM 


deadens  action  like  unbe 
lief.  Once  convince  men  that  their 
course  of  action  is  hopeless  and  inactivity 
will  follow.  The  spirit  which  gives  utter 
ance  to  the  words,  "  It  is  useless  to  try," 
is  the  greatest  enemy  which  any  reformer 
has  to  meet.  It  was  man's  unbelief  in 
his  power  to  free  the  slave  that  retarded 
the  cause  of  emancipation.  But  this 
despair  never  possessed  Whittier.  Not 
only  was  he  sincere  ;  he  was  also  cheer 
ful.  When  others  despaired  of  the 
triumph  of  right,  he  sang  as  though  the 
dawn  of  the  morning  was  at  hand.  He 
could  not  be  a  pessimist  because  he 
believed  in  man,  in  the  right,  and  in  God. 
He  was  quick  to  see  the  insincerity  of 
society.  After  a  visit  to  Washington, 


Optimism  53 

he  described  the  social  life  at  the  nation's 
capitol.     He  imagines  the  dance  : 

"  There  tonight  shall  woman's  glances, 

Star-like,  welcome  give  to  them  ; 
Fawning  fools  with  shy  advances 

Seek  to  touch  their  garment's  hem, 
With   the   tongue   of   flattery    glozing   deeds 
Which  God  and  Truth  condemn." 

What  is  it  to  these  people  of  wealth 
and  fashion  that  the  stars  look  down 
upon  a  scene  of  human  misery  that  earth 
would  fain  hide  !  "  That  the  slave  ship 
lies  in  waiting,  rocking  on  Potomac's 
side  !  "  Vainly  shall  the  slave  in  anguish 
call,  vainly  shall  the  mourner  go  to  these 
children  of  fashion  ! 

Here  would  the  pessimist  stop  and 
weight  the  wind  with  his  wailing.  But 
Whittier  saw  deeper.  Underneath  the 
insincerity  of  men  and  the  fickleness  of 
society,  he  saw  something  which  filled 
him  with  hope.  Mankind  at  heart  is 
real  and  once  its  heart  is  touched  by  a 
great  cause  it  will  give  its  warm  blood 
for  the  right. 


54          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

"  Nay,  my  words  are  all  too  sweeping  : 

In  this  crowded  human  mart, 
Feeling  is  not  dead,  but  sleeping  ; 

Man's  strong  will  and  woman's  heart 
In  the  coming  strife  for  freedom,  yet   shall 
bear  their  generous  part." 

It  was  because  of  this  belief  in  man 
that  he  wrote  many  of  his  Anti-slavery 
poems.  He  wrote  to  awaken  these  feel 
ings,  "  not  dead  but  sleeping,"  and  to 
make  "  man's  strong  will  "  bear  its  part. 

He  was  strong,  at  times,  almost  bitter 
in  his  criticism  of  the  Christian  Church. 
He  did  not  hesitate  to  call  the  Church, 
as  he  saw  it  in  many  places,  a  Christless 
Church.  Yet  he  was  not  pessimistic 
about  the  future  of  this  Christian  insti 
tution.  In  the  closing  paragraph  of  a 
poem  in  which  all  his  indignation  bursts 
forth,  he  says : 

"  O  heart  of  mine,  keep  patient !     Looking  forth, 
As  from  the  Mount  of  Vision,  I  behold, 

Pure,  just,  and  free,  the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth  ; 
The  martyr's  dream,  the  golden  age  foretold." 

Not  only  was  he   an   optimist   because 


Optimism  55 

he  believed  that  mankind  would  ulti 
mately  stand  for  the  right ;  he  believed 
that  God  was  on  the  side  of  the  right 
and  that  wrong  could  not  prevail. 
When  Texas  was  annexed  to  this  coun 
try,  as  Whittier  believed,  to  strengthen 
the  cause  of  slavery,  he  appealed  to  Mass 
achusetts  to  stand  firm  in  its  protest, 
though  forsaken  by  all  save  truth. 

"  Shrink  not  from  the  strife  unequal ! 

With  the  best  is  always  hope  ; 
And  ever  in  the  sequel 

God  holds  the  right  side  up." 

John  C.  Calhoun  strongly  urged  the 
annexation  of  Texas  so  that  slave  terri 
tory  might  be  increased,  but  opposed  the 
annexation  of  Oregon  for  fear  that  it 
would  enlarge  the  domain  of  freedom. 
To  him  the  Quaker  poet  writes :  "  The 
fates  are  just ;  they  give  us  but  our  own  ; 
Nemesis  ripens  what  our  hands  have 
sown." 

"  So,  Carolinian,  it  may  prove  with  thee, 

For  God  still  overrules  man's  schemes  and  takes 


56          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

Craftiness  in  its  self-set  snare,  and  makes 
The  wrath  of  man  to  praise  Him." 

Let  man  never  despair  who  is  in  the 
battle  for  the  right.  He  cannot  meet 
with  ultimate  defeat  for  all  the  powers 
of  nature  and  God  are  fighting  on  his 
side. 

"  Not  to  the  swift  nor  to  the  strong 
The  battles  of  the  right  belong ; 
For  he  who  strikes  for  Freedom  wears 
The  armor  of  the  captive's  prayers, 
And  nature  proffers  to  his  cause 
The  strength  of  her  eternal  laws  ; 
While  he  whose  arm  essays  to  bind 
And  herd  with  common  brutes  his  kind 
Strives  moreover  at  fearful  odds 
With  Nature  and  the  jealous  gods, 
And  dares  the  dread  recoil  which  late 
Or  soon  their  right  shall  vindicate." 

A  fugitive  slave,  Thomas  Sims,  was 
arrested  and  returned  to  bondage.  The 
wealthiest  and  most  respectable  citizens 
of  Boston  volunteered  their  services  to 
the  marshal  on  this  occasion.  All  the 
forces  of  mammon,  respectability,  and 
authority  were  arrayed  against  the  cause 


Optimism  57 

of  freedom.     But  this  could  not  make  a 
pessimist  of  Whittier. 

"  Chain  Hall  and  Pulpit,  Court  and  Press, 

Make  gods  of  gold  ; 
Let  honor,  truth,  and  manliness 
Like  wares  be  sold. 

Your  hoards  are  great,  your  walls  are  strong, 

But  God  is  just; 
The  guilded  chambers  built  by  wrong 

Invite  the  rust." 

"  Truth  is  stronger  than  a  lie, 
And  righteousness  than  wrong." 

On  a  June  day  when  the  sun  shines 
brightly  and  the  air  is  filled  with  new 
life,  a  strong  body  and  perfect  health 
will  make  an  optimist  of  any  man. 
When  the  night  comes  and  the  earth  is 
chilled  by  disappointment  and  shaken  by 
defeat,  only  a  believer  in  God  can  be  an 
optimist.  M.  Laveleye  truly  remarks 
that  "  an  incurable  sadness  takes  hold  of 
the  man  who  has  no  hope  of  anything 
better  than  this  life."  The  optimist  may 
be  conscious  of  pain  and  know  the  in 
equalities  and  struggles  which  are  a  part 


58          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

of  the  human  lot,  but  these  things  will 
not  discourage  him  because  he  believes 
that  a  perfect  Mind,  a  righteous  Reason 
ableness,  rules  in  the  mystery  and  night 
of  humanity. 

"  God's  ways  seem  dark,  but,  soon  or  late, 

They  touch  the  shining  hills  of  day  ; 

The  evil  cannot  brook  delay, 
The  good  can  well  afford  to  wait, 

Give  ermined  knaves  their  hour  of  crime ; 
Ye  have  the  future  grand  and  great, 

The  safe  appeal  of  Truth  to  Time." 

When  the  awful  war  cloud  hung  over 
our  country,  when  cities  were  being 
burned  and  the  brave  sons  of  North  and 
South  were  spilling  their  blood,  a  deep 
despair  took  possession  of  many  people. 
The  nation  seemed  to  them  as  a  ship 
with  her  sails  torn,  her  rudder  lost,  drift 
ing  at  the  mercy  of  the  tempestuous  sea. 
Whittier  came  in  this  dark  hour  with  his 
brave  words : 

"  But,  courage,  O  ye  mariners ! 

Ye  shall  not  suffer  wreck, 
While  up  to  God  the  freedman's  prayers 
Are  rising  from  your  deck. 


Optimism  59 

Wait  cheerily  then,  O  mariners, 

For  daylight  and  for  land  ; 
The  breath  of  God  is  in  your  sail, 

Your  rudder  in  His  hand." 

Much  of  the  pessimism  of  our  day 
may  be  traced  to  the  loss  of  faith  in  a 
divine  Providence  which  cares  for  man 
as  for  the  lily.  We  have  given  so  much 
attention  to  natural  law  that  we  have 
come  to  think  of  it  as  supreme  rather 
than  as  God's  wayof  doing  things.  Natu 
ral  law  has  become  a  very  God  to  many 
men  rather  than  a  wonderful  manifesta 
tion  of  the  divine  Will.  We  come  to  feel 
that,  rather  than  children  of  the  heavenly 
Father,  we  are  prisoners  in  a  great  ma 
chine  from  which  tnere  is  no  way  of 
escape.  But  the  Quaker  poet  could  not 
believe  that  this  was  a  cold  and  lifeless 
world,  abandoned  to  fate. 

"  Nothing  can  of  chance  befall : 
Child  and  Seraph,  mote  and  star, 
Well  Thou  knowest  what  we  are ! 
Through  Thy  vast  creative  plan 
Looking,  from  the  worm  to  man, 
There  is  pity  in  Thine  eyes, 


60          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

But  no  hatred  nor  surprise. 

Not  in  blind  caprice  of  will, 

Not  in  cunning  sleight  of  skill, 

Not  for  show  of  power,  was  wrought 

Nature's  marvel  in  Thy  thought. 

Never  careless  hand  and  vain 

Smites  these  chords  of  joy  and  pain  ; 

No  immortal  selfishness 

Plays  the  game  of  curse  and  bless : 

Heaven  and  earth  are  witnesses 

That  Thy  glory  goodness  is." 

Only  a  soul  with  a  large  outlook  upon 
life  and  destiny  can  persevere  in  great 
works  of  love  for  the  uplifting  of  human 
ity.  The  forces  of  evil  are  so  strongly 
organized,  the  very  material  with  which 
we  labor  is  so  imperfect,  that  defeat  is 
sure  to  follow  defeat.  No  man  in  the 
service  of  humanity  has  ever  met  with 
constant  success.  Those  who  have  per 
severed  under  these  circumstances  have 
been  conscious  of  the  larger  service  in 
which  they  were  engaged  and  of  the  co 
operation  which  they  had  from  higher 
powers.  When  John  Bright  stood  up  in 
the  House  of  Commons  he  began  his 


Optimism  61 

address  with  these  words  :  "  Let  us  ex 
amine  the  laws  and  principles  under 
which  alone  God  has  permitted  nations 
to  become  great."  Charles  Sumner 
speaking  in  Congress  said  :  "  I  desire  to 
speak  about  certain  laws  older  than  the 
Constitution,  older  than  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  older  than  the  Vedas. 
I  mean  the  laws  of  Almighty  God." 
Oliver  Cromwell,  Gladstone,  and  Lincoln 
labored  in  the  faith  that  God  was  on  the 
side  of  right  and  that  the  final  triumph 
of  right  was  assured.  Defeat  was  only 
temporary.  So  long  as  God  is  in  His 
heavens  all  is  right  with  the  world.  This 
same  faith  filled  Whittier  with  hope  and 
enabled  him  to  work  even  though  dark 
ness  was  round  about  him. 

"  I  have  not  seen,  I  may  not  see, 

My  hopes  for  man  take  form  in  fact, 
But  God  will  give  the  victory 

In  due  time  ;  in  that  faith  I  act. 
And  he  who  sees  the  future  sure, 
The  baffling  present  may  endure, 
And  bless,  meanwhile,  the  unseen  Hand  that  leads 
The  heart's    desire  beyond    the    halting  step   of 
deeds." 


RELIGION  AND    HUMANITY 

QLOSELY  related  to  Whittier's 
thought  of  the  love  of  God  is  that 
of  the  love  of  man.  Along  the  pathway 
of  these  two  principles  his  thought 
traveled  and  by  them  his  life  was  guided. 
Late  in  his  life  he  wrote :  "  More  and 
more  the  world  is  learning  that  the  true 
plan  of  salvation  is  love  of  God  and  love 
to  man."  In  a  letter  to  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  he  said,  "  Love  is  the  one  essen 
tial  thing." 

He  labored  not  for  fame  nor  to  gain  a 
place  among  the  immortals,  but  for  the 
benefit  of  the  world  about  him.  IH  a 
letter  written  to  Lucy  Hooper,  in  which 
he  was  urging  her  to  write  a  poem  of 
some  length,  speaking  of  the  time  which 
would  be  required  to  write  it  he  said : 
"  We  shall  perish  and  verily  our  works 


Religion  and  Humanity        63 

shall  follow  us.  The  hearts  which  now 
know  us  and  love  us  will  also  soon  cease  to 
beat  and  with  them  our  very  memories 
will  die.  The'  utilitarian  of  the  twen 
tieth  century  will  not  heed  whether,  in 
treading  on  our  graves,  he  shakes  the 
dust  of  prose  or  poetry  from  his  feet. 
And  after  all  what  matters  it?  Who 
cares  for  the  opinions  of  the  twentieth 
century?  Not  I,  for  one  ;  but  we  do  all 
care  for  the  opinions  of  the  good  and  the 
wise  and  the  pure-hearted  around  us  !  If 
we  strive  for  fame,  or  riches,  or  honor,  it 
is  because  we  wish  to  share  their  smile 
with  the  friends  whom  we  love,  and  in 
the  matter  of  poetry,  a  poetical  reputa 
tion."  A  few  days  later  he  wrote  her 
again  urging  her  to  write  a  poem  of  some 
length  before  she  published  her  shorter 
poems,  but  he  added  these  words  of 
advice  which  he  hoped  she  would  con 
sider  before  she  undertook  such  a  task  : 
"  Unless  consecrated  to  the  sacred  inter 
ests  of  religion  and  humanity,  it  would 


64          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

be  a  criminal  waste  of  life  and  abuse  of 
the  powers  which  God  has  given  for  his 
own  glory  and  the  welfare  of  the  world." 
In  this  way  Whittier  would  have  re 
garded  his  own  life  had  he  spent  it  in  any 
other  way  than  for  the  advancement  of 
the  human  race.  The  cause  of  his  life 
was  the  cause  of  his  fallen  brother,  and 
to  break  the  shackles  that  bound  him 
and  remove  the  snares  that  awaited  him 
was  the  purpose  of  all  his  labors.  So 
well  did  he  live  in  accord  with  his  pur 
pose  that  he  might  have  taken  these 
words  for  his  own  : 

"  Hand  of  want  or  soul  in  pain 
Have  not  sought  my  door  in  vain  ; 
I  have  kept  my  fealty  good 
To  the  human  brotherhood ; 
Scarcely  have  I  asked  in  prayer 
That  which  others  might  not  share." 

His  long  fight  against  slavery,  his  ninety- 
two  anti-slavery  poems,  his  espousal  of 
the  cause  of  the  oppressed  in  Italy 
and  elsewhere,  all  testify  to  the  principle 


Religion  and  Humanity        65 

which  ruled  his  life.  There  are  many 
things  which  show  the  sympathy  and 
love  which  guided  him.  In  a  letter  to 
Elizabeth  Stuart  Phclps,  he  wrote:  "  I 
love  Beecher  and  believe  in  him.  He 
has  done  good  to  thousands.  If  he  has 
fallen  into  temptation  I  shall  feel  grieved, 
but  would  be  ashamed  of  myself  were  I 
less  his  friend  ! "  The  members  of  the 
Society  of  Friends  were  troubled  when 
they  found  themselves  in  the  midst  of 
war.  He  addressed  these  words  to  them  : 
"_Qur_mission  is  at  this  time  to  mitigate 
the  sufferings  of  our  countrymen,  to  visit 
and  aid  the  sick  and  the  wounded,  to  re 
lieve  the  necessities  of  the  widow  and 
the  orphan,  and  to  practise  economy  for 
the  sake  of  charity." 

Whittier's  greatest  work  was  his  em 
phasis  upon  the  human  side  of  Christi 
anity.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  believed 
that  theology  had  become  chiefly  dia- 
bology  and  he  worked  with  pen  and 
tongue  to  humanize  religious  thought. 


66          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

In  "  The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast 
Table"  he  wrote:  "By  Jove,  Sir,  until 
common  sense  is  well  mixed  up  with 
medicine,  and  common  manhood  with 
theology,  and  common  honesty  with  law, 
We,  the  People,  Sir,  some  of  us  with  nut 
crackers,  some  of  us  with  trip  hammers, 
and  some  of  us  with  pile  drivers,  and 
some  of  us  coming  with  a  whish  !  like 
air  stones  out  of  a  lunar  volcano,  will 
crash  down  upon  lumps  of  nonsense  in 
all  of  them  till  we  have  made  powder 
with  them  like  Aaron's  calf." 

What  Holmes  proposed  to  do,  Whit- 
tier  did,  at  least  in  the  realm  of  religion. 
He  made  men  understand  that  Jiiey 
could  show  their  love  for  God  only  by 
acting  in  love  toward  men.  If  the  pul 
pits  were  dumb  on  the  great  theme  of 
human  slavery,  and  Christianity  had  de 
generated  into  mere  pietism,  he  made 
the  dumb  clergy  ashamed  of  their  silence 
and  never  tired  of  telling  men  that  apart 
from  the  cup  of  cold  water  given  to  the 


Religion  and  Humanity        67 

least  of  earth's  children    there  could  be 
no  Christianity. 

A  northern  merchant  in  order  to  con 
ciliate  his  Southern  customers  had  an 
edition  of  the  Prayer  Book  printed  with 
certain  portions,  which  were  obnoxious 
to  the  South,  omitted.  Before  these 
books,  Whittier  says,  "  sleek  oppressors 
kneel  to  pray."  These  men  imagine  that 
heaven  is  moved  by  flattering  tongues, 
that  in  the  scales  of  Eternal  Justice,  sel 
fish  prayers  weigh  more  than  generous 
deeds,  that  "  words  intoned  with  graceful 
unction  move  the  Eternal  Goodness  more 
than  lives  of  truth  and  love."  By  them 
the  Lord,  again,  is  crucified,  Eternal 
Goodness  is  clipped  and  shorn,  his  robe 
of  mercy  is  rent.  The  cry  of  the  bond 
man  is  "  prayer-smothered,"  "  anthem- 
drowned." 

"  No  falser  idol  man  has  bowed  before, 
In  Indian  groves  or  islands  of  the  sea, 
Than  that  which  through  the  quaint-carved 

Gothic  door 
Looks  forth,— a  church  without  humanity." 


68          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

Whittier  saw  a  priesthood  which  had 
lost  its  vision  and  had  ceased  to  cry 
"  Holy,  Holy,  Holy  !  "  They  waited  for 
the  beck  and  nod  of  power  ;  with  solemn 
words  they  sanctified  the  fraud ;  with 
ghostly  lips  they  blessed  the  manacles 
and  whips  of  slavery.  "  Not  on  them 
the  poor  rely,  not  to  them  looks  liberty." 
What  cant  they  proclaimed  !  "  Golden 
streets  for  idle  knaves,  sabbath  rest  for 
weary  slave."  What  a  substitute  for  the 
message  of  the  Nazarene,  this  life  of 
future  bliss  painted  on  the  black  and 
hopeless  present ! 

"  Not  for  words  and  works  like  these, 
Priest  of  God,  thy  mission  is  ; 
But  to  make  earth's  desert  glad, 
In  its  Eden  greenness  clad  ; 
And  to  level  manhood  bring 
Lord  and  peasant,  serf  and  king ; 
And  the  Christ  of  God  to  find 
In  the  humblest  of  thy  kind." 

Religion  is  always  in  danger  of  degen 
erating  into  quackery.  As  the  solemn 
assembly,  the  noise  of  song  and  the 


Religion  and  Humanity        69 

melody  of  viol  satisfied  the  religious  con 
science  of  a  corrupt  Jewish  nation,  when 
Amos  spoke  at  Bethel,  so  a  false  piety  is 
always  in  danger  of  robbing  religion  of 
its  moral  quality.  But  forms  of  worship 
and  confessions  of  faith,  apart  from  the 
Christian  virtues,  were  nothing  to  this 
simple  Quaker.  Of  Doctor  Neall,  a 
philanthropist  and  abolitionist,  brave, 
gentle,  and  tender,  he  wrote : 

"  He  blew  no  trumpet  in  the  market  place, 
Nor  in  the  Church  with  hypocritic  face 
Supplied  with  cant  the  lack  of  Christian  grace  ; 
Loathing  pretense,  he  did  with  cheerful  will 
What  others  talked  of  while  their  hands  were  still ; 
And,  while  '  Lord,  Lord  ! '  the  pious  tyrant  cried, 
Who,  in  the  poor,  their  Master  crucified, 
His  daily  prayer,  far  better  understood 
In  acts  than  words,  was  simply  doing  good." 

We  forget  the  meek  and  retiring  Whit- 
tier  and  can  picture  in  imagination  none 
other  than  a  giant  with  a  voice  of  thunder 
when  we  read  "  The  Christian  Slave," 
intense  with  emotion,  bitter  with  irony, 
and  piercing  in  intellectual  keenness.  A 


70          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

Southern  newspaper  gave  a  description 
of  the  auction  of  a  slave  girl.  On  the 
platform  she  was  recommended  as  a 
"  good  Christian."  Whittier  catches  the 
words  of  the  auctioneer: 

"  A  Christian  !  going,  gone  ! 
Who  bids  for  God's  own  image  ?  for  his  grace 
Which  that  poor  victim  of  the  market-place, 

Hath  in  her  suffering  won  ? 

My  God  !  can  such  things  be  ? 
Hast  Thou  not  said  that  whatso'er  is  done 
Unto  Thy  weakest  and  Thy  humblest  one 

Is  even  done  to  Thee  ? 

In  that  sad  victim,  then, 
Child  of  Thy  pitying  love,  I  see  Thee  stand ; 
Once  more  the  jest-word  of  a  mocking  band, 

Bound,  sold,  and  scourged  again  !  " 

He  was  as  strong  in  his  condemnation 
of  certain  phases  of  the  commercial  spirit 
in  New  England  as  he  was  in  his  con 
demnation  of  the  church  when  it  failed 
in  its  duty.  Men,  as  in  every  great 
reform,  said,  "  Don't  interfere ;  it  will 
affect  trade.  The  market  will  become 
unstable  and  prices  will  drop."  Party 


Religion  and  Humanity         7 1 

men  said,  "  Stand  by  the  party."  But 
Whittier  cried,  when  the  call  was  given 
for  a  meeting  of  citizens  in  Faneuil  Hall : 

"  Up,  and  tread  beneath  your  feet 

Every  cord  by  party  spun : 
Let  your  hearts  together  beat 

As  the  hearts  of  one. 
Banks  and  tariffs,  stocks  and  trade, 

Let  them  rise  or  let  them  fall: 
Freedom  asks  your  common  aid, — 

Up,  to  Faneuil  Hall." 

When  he  heard  of  the  rejection  of  the 
Anti-slavery  Resolves  by  the  Whig  Con 
vention  in  Faneuil  Hall  in  1846  he 
wrote  : 

"  Tell  me  not  of  banks  and  tariffs,  cease  your  pal 
try  pedler  cries  ; 

Shall  the  good  State  sink   her  honor   that  your 

gambling  stocks  may  rise  ? 

"Would  you  barter  man  for   cotton?     That  your 
gains  may  sum  up  higher, 

Must  we  kiss  the  feet  of  Moloch,  pass  our  chil 
dren  through  the  fire  ? 

Is  the  dollar  only  real  ?     God  and  truth  and  right 
a  dream  ? 

Weighed   against   your   lying  ledgers   must    our 
manhood  kick  the  beam  ? 


72          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

O  my  God  !  for  that  free  spirit,  which  of  old  in 

Boston  town 
Smote  the  Province  House  with  terror,  struck  the 

crest  of  Andros  down  ! 
For  another  strong-voiced  Adams  in  the  streets  to 

cry, 
'  Up  for  God  and  Massachusetts  !     Set  your  feet 

on  mammon's  lie  ! 
Perish  banks  and  perish  traffic,  spin  your  cotton's 

latest  pound, 
But  in  heaven's  name  keep  your  honor,  keep  the 

heart  o'  the  Bay  State  sound  ! ' ' 

After  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  had 
closed  the  greatest  question  before  the 
thirty-ninth  Congress  was  that  of  recon 
struction,  and  especially  the  question  of 
the  standing  of  those  who  had  taken 
arms  against  the  Union  and  their  relation 
to  the  freedmen.  Whittier  addressed  a 
poem  to  the  Congress  which  is  a  forceful 
plea  for  the  manifestation  of  Christian 
love,  and  reveals  in  every  stanza  the 
beautiful  spirit  of  the  poet. 

"  The  torch  of  vengeance  in  your  hands 
He  quenches  ;  unto  Him  belong 
The  solemn  recompense  of  wrongs. 


Religion  and  Humanity        73 

Alas  !  no  victor's  pride  is  ours  ; 
We  bend  above  our  triumphs  won 
Like  David  o'er  his  rebel  son." 

The  breadth  of  his  sympathy  is  indi 
cated  by  his  attitude  toward  men  of 
other  sects  than  his  own.  As  we  have 
seen,  he  was  an  orthodox  Quaker,  but  he 
was  quick  to  recognize  a  Christian  wher 
ever  he  saw  him,  whether  in  the  ranks 
of  Unitarians  or  trinitarians.  The  life 
which  a  man  lived,  not  the  creed  to 
which  he  subscribed,  was  to  this  Quaker 
the  measure  of  a  Christian.  He  read  a 
poem  at  the  anniversary  of  the  Friend's 
school  in  Providence  in  which  he  eulo 
gized  the  great  work  which  the  Quakers 
had  accomplished,  and  then  adds : 

"  Enough  and  too  much  of  the  sect  and  the  name. 
What  matters  our  label,  so  truth  be  our  aim  ? 
The  creed  may  be  wrong,  but  the  life  may  be  true, 
And  hearts  beat  the  same  under  drab  coats  or 
blue." 

In  a  poem  read  at  Brown  University 
the  same  thought  is  expressed  : 


74          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

"  So  love  of  God  and  man  wax  stronger, 
Let  sect  and  creecl  be  lesser. 

And  slowly  learns  the  world  the  truth 

That  makes  us  all  thy  debtor, — 
That  holy  life  is  more  than  rite, 

And  spirit  more  than  letter  ; 

That  they  who  differ  pole-wide  serve 

Perchance  the  common  Master, 
And  other  sheep  He  hath  than  they 

Who  graze  one  narrow  pasture  !  " 

Whittier  was  a  strong  advocate  of 
universal  peace.  War  is  the  fruit  of 
human  selfishness  and  greed  and  it  could 
have  no  place  in  his  thought  which  was 
so  dominated  by  love.  In  1873  in  his 
"  Christmas  Carmen  "  he  wrote  : 

"  Sing  the  bridal  of  nations  !  with  chorals  of  love 
Sing  out  the  war-vulture  and  sing  in  the  dove, 
Till  the  hearts  of  the  people  keep  time  in  accord, 
And  the  voice  of  the  world  is  the  voice  of  the 
Lord! 

Clasp  hands  of  the  nations 
In  strong  gratulations : 

The  dark  night  is  ending  and  dawn  has  begun ; 
Rise,  hope  of  the  ages,  rise  like  the  sun, 
All  speech  flow  to  music,  all  hearts  beat  as  one ! 
Blow,  bugles  of  battle,  the  marches  of  peace  ; 


Religion  and  Humanity        75 

East,  west,  north,  and  south  let  the  long  quarrel 

cease  : 

Sing  the  song  of  great  joy  that  the  angels  began, 
Sing  of  glory  to  God  and  of  good-will  to  man  ! 
Hark  !  joining  in  chorus 
The  heavens  bend  o'er  us  ! 
The  dark  night  is  ending  and  dawn  has  begun ; 
Rise,  hope  of  the  ages,  arise  like  the  sun, 
All  speech  flow  to  music,  all  hearts  beat  as  one !  " 

He  also  raised  a  protest  against  the  cruel 
practice  of  heresy  trials.  Our  Puritan 
fathers  made  the  mistake  of  regard 
ing  man  chiefly  as  an  intellectual  being, 
and  religion  as  a  philosophical  system  of 
thought  to  which  men  must  give  assent 
to  obtain  salvation.  They  forgot  that 
man  had  affections,  and  imagination,  and 
will,  and  that  he  gained  more  knowledge 
through  these  faculties  of  his  soul  than 
through  his  logical  reason.  They  could 
not  conceive  of  religion  as  a  life  but  only 
as  a  dogma  which  was  to  gain  the  assent 
of  man's  intellect.  To  dissent,  therefore, 
from  the  accepted  theological  dogmas 
was  heresy,  and  heresy  was  one  of  the 
greatest  human  sins,  indeed  it  was  very 


76  The  Mind  of  Wkittier 

anti-Christ,  because  it  shook  the  founda 
tions  of  man's  hope  in  eternal  life.  But 
Whittier  had  a  larger  conception  of  the 
nature  of  religion  than  had  the  Puritan. 
Religion  is  a  life  to  be  lived  rather  than 
a.  dogma  to  be  believed.  Love  is  greater 
than  knowledge  and  therefore  it  is  more 
Christ-like  to  bear  with  the  heretic  than 
it  is  to  persecute  him.  In  "  The  Vision 
of  Echard  "  he  makes  God  say  : 

"  I  loathe  your  wrangling  councils, 

I  tread  upon  your  creeds  ; 
Who  made  ye  mine  avengers, 
Or  told  ye  of  my  needs  ; 

T  bless  men  and  ye  curse  them, 

I  love  them  and  ye  hate  ; 
Ye  bite  and  tear  each  other, 

I  suffer  long  and  wait." 

Indeed  who  is  the  heretic  ? 

"  Call  him  not  heretic  whose  words  attest 
His  faith  in  goodness  by  no  creed  confessed. 
Whatever  in  love's  name  is  truly  done 
To  free  the  bound  and  lift  the  fallen  one 
Is  done  to  Christ.     Whoso  in  deed  and  word 
Is  not  against  Him  labors  for  our  Lord. 
When  He,  who,  sad  and  weary,  longing  sore 


Religion  and  Humanity        77 

For  love's  sweet  service,  sought  the  sisters'  door, 
One  saw  the  heavenly,  one  the  human  guest, 
But  who  shall  say  which  loved  the  Master  best  ?  " 

Faith  is  too  often  made  a  matter  of 
intellectual  assent  to  a  creed  but  this  is 
not  faith  at  all.  Faith  is  trust  in  the 
God  who  is  good,  and  trust  that  brings 
us  into  such  vital  relation  with  Him  that 
we  manifest  His  goodness  in  our  lives. 

"  We  live  by  Faith  ;  but  Faith  is  not  the  slave 
Of  text  and  legend.     Reason's  voice  and  God's, 
Nature's  and  Duty's,  never  are  at  odds. 

What  asks  our  Father  of  His  children,  save 

Justice  and  mercy  and  humility, 

A  reasonable  service  of  good  deeds, 
Pure  living,  tenderness  of  human  needs, 

Reverence  and  truth,  and  prayer  for  light  to  see 

The  Master's  footprints  in  our  daily  ways  ? 
No  knotted  scourge  nor  sacrificial  knife, 
But  the  calm  beauty  of  an  ordered  life 

Whose  very  breathing  is  unworded  praise  ! — 
A  life  that  stands  as  all  true  lives  have  stood, 
Firm-rooted  in  the  faith  that  God  is  Good." 

Closely  connected  with  the  thought  of 
love  is  Whittier's  thought  of  worship. 
While  so  plain,  so  devoid  of  everything 
which  would  appeal  to  the  eye  or  the 


78          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

ear,  his  conception  is  beautiful.  It  is 
the  thought  expressed  by  St.  James : 
"  Pure  religion  and  undefiled  before  God 
and  the  Father  is  this,  to  visit  the 
fatherless  and  the  widows  in  their 
affliction  and  to  keep  himself  unspotted 
from  the  world."  When  these  words 
are  rightly  understood  they  embody 
Whittier's  thought  of  worship.  They 
mean  pure  worship  rather  than  pure 
religion.  The  word  "  religion  "  in  the 
seventeenth  century  meant  mainly  "  out 
ward  service,"  or  what  we  sometimes 
express  in  the  words  "  religious  service 
and  worship."  Religion  then  was  mainly 
ritual  of  ceremonies  and  ablutions,  but 
the  true  ritual,  says  St.  James,  is  purity, 
love,  and  service. 

"  He  asks  no  taper  lights  on  high,  surrounding 
The  priestly  altar  and  the  saintly  grave, 

No  dolorous  chants  nor  organ  music  sounding 
Nor  incense  clouding  up  the  twilight  nave. 

O  brother  man  !  fold  to  thy  heart  thy  brother ; 
Where  pity  dwells,  the  peace  of  God  is  there  : 


Religion  and  Humanity        79 

To  worship  rightly  is  to  love  each  other, 
Each  smile  a  hymn,  each  kindly  deed  a  prayer." 

The  same   thought   is   found   in  "  Our 
Master:  " 

"  He  serves  the  best  who  loveth  most 
His  brothers  and  thy  own, 
Thy  litanies,  sweet  offices 
Of  love  and  gratitude  ; 
Thy  sacramental  liturgies 
The  joy  of  doing  good." 

In  "  The  Over-Heart  "  he  writes  : 

"  What  doth  the  holy  guide  require  ? 
No  rite  of  pain,  nor  gift  of  blood, 
But  man  a  kindly  brotherhood. 
Looking,  where  duty  is  desire, 
To  Him,  the  beautiful  and  good." 

In  love  and   service  is  to  be  found  the 
highest  worship. 

"  For  he  who  sings  the  love  of  man 
The  love  of  God  hath  sung." 


NATURE 

"DICHARD  HENRY  STODDARD, 
writing  of  Whittier's  poems  on 
Nature,  marks  them  as  "  characterized 
by  poetic  elements  which  are  not 
common  among  descriptive  poets.  They 
are  not  enumerative  like  the  landscapes 
that  form  the  backgrounds  of  Scott's 
metrical  romances,  but  suggestive ;  for 
though  there  is  an  abundance  of  form 
and  color  in  them,  their  value  does  not 
depend  upon  these  qualities  so  much  as 
upon  the  luminous  atmosphere  in  which 
they  are  steeped.  They  are  more  than 
picturesque  in  that  they  reveal  the 
personality  of  the  poet,  a  personality 
that,  changing  with  the  moods  they 
awaken,  is  always  tender  and  thoughtful, 
grateful  for  the  glimpses  of  loveliness 
they  disclose,  and  consoled  by  the 
spiritual  truth  they  teach." 


Nature  8 1 

Whittier  was  not  a  Greek  in  spirit. 
He  did  not  love  nature  for  its  simple 
beauty  of  form  and  color.  The  thing  of 
supreme  interest  to  him  was  life  and  he 
was  attracted  to  nature  because  it  helped 
him  to  interpret  himself,  his  brother,  and 
his  God.  Nature  was  dwarfed  to  insignifi 
cance  before  a  human  soul.  The  poet 
visited  a  farm  and  heard  the  bleating  of 
sheep  among  the  hills,  the  old  bucket 
splashing  in  the  well,  the  clatter  of  the 
pasture-bars  as  they  fell,  the  creaking  of 
the  barn-yard  gate  as  the  children  upon 
it  swung  back  and  forth,  the  clear  tink 
ling  of  the  cow  bell  as  the  evening 
brought  in  the  herd  from  the  pasture. 
The  scene  broadened  until  he  saw  the 
"  lake  tinted  with  sunset,"  "  the  wavy 
lines  of  the  receding  hills/'  and  still 
farther  away 

"  Monadnock  lifting  from  his  night  of  pines 

His  rosy  forehead  to  the  evening  star. 
Beside  us,  purple-zoned,  Wachuset  laid 
His  head  against  the  West,  whose   warm  light 
made 


82          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

His  aureole  ;  and  o'er  him,  sharp  and  clear, 
Like  a  shaft  of  lightening  in  mid-launching  stayed, 
A  single  level  cloud-line,  shone  upon 
By  the  fierce  glances  of  the  sunken  sun, 
Menaced  the  darkness  with  its  golden  spear!  " 

Truly  this  is  a  picture  which  would  make 
a  Greek  of  any  man  !  What  more  could 
man  desire?  But  as  Whittier  looks  on 
this  picture,  so  beautiful,  the  farmer, 
walking  by  his  side,  speaks  of  his  sainted 
mother,  and  immediately  Whittier  sees 
something  still  more  beautiful  than  this 
nature-picture. 

"  The  warm  sky,  the  sundown-tinted  hill, 
The  forest  and  the  lake,  seemed  dwarfed  and 

dim 
Before  the  saintly  soul,  whose  human  will 

Meekly  in  the  Eternal  footsteps  trod, 
Making  her  homely  toil  and  household  ways 
An  earthly  echo  of  the  song  of  praise 

Swelling  from  angel  lips  and  harps  of  seraphim." 

It  was  because  Whittier  saw  all  nature 
in  terms  of  life  that  his  nature  poetry 
differs  from  that  of  any  other  descriptive 
poet.  He  was  not  a  philosophical  inter 
preter  of  nature  as  was  Wordsworth  but 


Nat  lire  83 

nature  was  constantly  interpreting  for 
him  the  great  realities  of  life.  Nature 
always  spoke  to  him  on  those  great 
themes  of  love,  immortality,  and  God. 
It  was  always  making  clear  to  him  some 
human  emotion,  or  hope,  or  fear.  It  is 
true  that  at  times  he  delighted  to  go 
into  the  presence  of  nature  and  forget 
"  the  dusty  land  and  noisy  town."  He 
often  went  into  the  forests  or  to  the  sea 
shore,  and  let  nature's  calm  pour  into  his 
soul.  At  Hampton  Beach  he  said  : 

"  Good-by  to  Pain  and  Care  !  I  take 

Mine  ease  to-day : 

Here  where  these  sunny  waters  break, 
And  ripples  this  keen  breeze,  I  shake 
All  burdens  from  the  heart,  all  weary  thoughts 
away. 

I  draw  a  freer  breath,  I  seem 

Like  all  I  see 

Waves  in  the  sun,  the  white-winged  gleam 
Of  sea-birds  in  the  slanting  beam, 
And  far-off  sails  which  flit  before  the  south-wind 
free." 

But   he    found  this  rest  and   peace  in 
nature  because  all  nature  had  for  him  a 


84          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

deep,  sacred  significance.  It  was  more 
than  sticks,  and  rocks,  and  clods,  and 
flowers,  and  hills.  It  was  the  garment  of 
Spirit  ever  present  in  man  and  things. 
It  was  a  symbol  of  spiritual  facts  which 
enabled  him  to  hear  in  nature  a  living 
voice. 

The  religious  significance  of  Whittier's 
nature  poetry  is  found  in  three  uses 
which  he  makes  of  nature.  First,  he 
finds  in  nature  a  text  for  his  sermon  ; 
second,  nature  gives  him  the  opportunity 
for  "  thoughtful  hours  of  musing;"  and 
finally,  nature  has  a  deeper  spiritual 
significance  which  speaks  of  God. 

Whittier  was  a  natural  preacher  and 
he  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to 
preach.  Tennyson  was  seldom  if  ever  a 
preacher.  He  always  had  a  moral  view 
in  his  writings.  He  did  not  write  for 
art's  sake  alone.  The  substance  of  his 
message  was  as  important  as  its  form. 
But  he  never  used  his  material  as  does 
the  preacher.  The  story  of  life  which  he 


Nature  85 

related,  or  the  picture  of  nature  which 
he  drew,  was  so  clear  that  the  moral 
truth  was  always  felt.  He  never  attached 
a  moral  to  the  end  of  his  writings. 
Whittier,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not 
satisfied  to  draw  a  picture  and  let  it 
teach  its  own  lesson.  To  him  the  illus 
tration  was  incomplete  until  he  made 
the  application. 

He  wrote  of  the  Mayflower  and  the 
origin  of  its  name.  The  Pilgrim  went 
into  the  forest  at  the  opening  of  spring 
after  that  first  hard  winter  at  Plymouth 
and  finding  this  flower  lifting  its  head 
above  the  leaves,  named  it  after  the  ship 
which  had  brought  him  across  the  sea. 
The  flower  has  come  to  us  with  the  same 
beautiful  blossom  which  welcomed  the 
Pilgrim.  So  Whittier  would  have  the 
Pilgrim's  character  come  down  to  us  and 
be  repeated  in  our  sons. 

"  O  sacred  flower  of  faith  and  hope, 

As  sweetly  now  as  then 
Ye  bloom  on  many  a  birchen  slope, 
In  many  a  pine-dark  glen. 


86          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

Behind  the  sea-wall's  rugged  length, 
Unchanged,  your  leaves  unfold, 

Like  love  behind  the  manly  strength 
Of  the  brave  hearts  of  old. 

So  like  the  fathers'  in  their  sons, 

Their  sturdy  faith  be  ours, 
And  ours  the  love  that  overruns 

Its  rocky  strength  with  flowers." 

He  stood  looking  at  the  mountain  of 
Franconia.  The  lightning  was  playing 
about  its  brow,  the  clouds  were  wrapping 
their  black  mantles  about  its  sides,  and 
the  roar  of  thunder  was  echoing  down 
its  deep,  dark  canyons.  Tongues  of  fire 
broke  the  great  trees  and  the  rain  fell  in 
torrents.  After  the  storm  the  mists 
cleared,  the  winds  paused  in  the  pines, 
and  the  deer  went  forth  to  feed.  The 
rain  set  in  play  a  thousand  waterfalls, 
whose  laughter  made  the  woods  glad, 
and  filling  the  dry  streams  in  the  valley, 
made  them  "  sing  to  the  freshened  mea 
dow-lands  again."  This  was  a  picture 
drawn  by  Whittier  in  1862,  when  an 
awful  storm  had  swept  over  our  land ; 


Nature  87 

when  everything  was  dark  and  sad.  The 
blessings  that  followed  the  storm  about 
the  mountain  filled  him  with  a  larger 
hope  for  the  nation. 

"  So,  let  me  hope,  the  battle-storm  that  beats 
The  land  with  hail  and  fire  may  pass  away 
With  its  spent  thunders  at  the  break  of  day, 
Like  last  night's  clouds,  and  leave,  as  it  retreats, 
A  greener  earth  and  fairer  sky  behind, 
Blown    crystal-clear   by  Freedom's    Northern 
wind  ! " 

In  the  sunset,  "  the  miracle  play  of 
night  and  day,"  Whittier  found  thought 
for  a  sermon  on  immortality.  The  last 
rays  of  the  summer's  sun  fell  on  the  river 
making  "  a  gold  fringe  on  the  purpling 
hem  of  hills."  A  light  touched  the  sky 
and  mountain  filling  them  with  a  glory 
of  which  no  poet  has  ever  sung.  The 
summit  of  the  mountains  "  melt  in  rosy 
mist,"  and  the  granite  rocks  seem  softer 
than  the  clouds.  No  leaf  stirs.  The 
silence  of  eternity  has  fallen  over  the 
land.  The  poet  stands  dumb  before 
the  scene.  But  soon  it  begins  to  fade.  The 


88          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

golden  waters  grow  pale  and  a  gray- 
winged  mist  sweeps  over  the  valley,  shut 
ting  from  view  the  purple  hills.  The 
day  is  lost  in  the  night. 

"  I  go  the  common  way  of  all ; 

The  sunset  fires  will  burn, 
The  flowers  will  blow,  the  river  flow, 

When  I  no  more  return. 
No  whisper  from  the  mountain  pine 

Nor  lapsing  stream  shall  tell 
The  stranger,  treading  where  I  tread, 

Of  him  who  loved  them  well. 

But  beauty  seen  is  never  lost, 

God's  colors  all  are  fast ; 
The  glory  of  the  sunset  heaven 

Into  my  soul  has  passed, 
A  sense  of  gladness  unconfined 

To  mortal  date  or  clime ; 
As  the  soul  liveth,  it  shall  live 

Beyond  the  years  of  time. 
Beside  the  mystic  asphodels 

Shall  bloom  the  home-born  flowers, 
And  new  horizons  flush  and  glow 

With  sunset  hues  of  ours." 

Whittier  could  not  even  contemplate  a 
simple  Christmas  scene  without  finding 
in  it  the  deeper  meaning  of  human  life. 
A  traveler  passed  by  his  home  at  Christ- 


Nature  89 

mas  time  and  saw  dimly  through  the 
frosted  window  pane  a  flower.  To  the 
traveler  it  had  no  beauty  because  he  could 
not  see  its  perfect  grace.  It  turned  its 
face  from  the  "  frosty  breath  of  autumn  " 
to  the  warm  tropic  air  of  the  room,  so 
that  only  those  within  the  home  could 
see  the  real  beauty  of  the  flower. 

"  So  from  the  trodden  ways  of  earth, 
Seem  some  sweet  souls  who  veil  their  worth, 
And  offer  to  the  careless  glance 
The  clouding  gray  of  circumstance. 
They  blossom  best  where  hearth-fires  burn, 
To  loving  eyes  alone  they  turn ' 
The  flowers  of  inward  grace  that  hide 
Their  beauty  from  the  world  outside. 

But  deeper  meanings  come  to  me, 
My  half-immortal  flower,  from  thee  ! 
Man  judges  from  a  partial  view, 
None  ever  yet  his  brother  knew  ; 
The  Eternal  Eye  that  sees  the  whole 
May  better  read  the  darkened  soul, 
And  find,  to  outward  sense  denied, 
The  flower  upon  its  inmost  side  ! " 

Whittier's  use  of  nature  as  a  text  for  a 
sermon    was    not,    however,   his  highest 


9o          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

thought  of  nature.  He  tells  us  that  he 
went  to  nature  for  "  thoughtful  hours  of 
musing."  We  are  fortunate  in  having  so 
many  poets  who  have  lived  in  com 
munion  with  nature.  From  Bryant's 
"  Thanatopsis  "  to  Woodberry's  "North 
Shore  Watch,"  our  poets  have  gone  to 
nature  for  some  of  their  deepest  and 
most  spiritual  lessons.  So  Whittier 
went  into  the  forest  and  by  the  sea 
shore,  not  so  much  for  the  purpose  of 
finding  sermons,  as  to  commune  with 
nature  in  her  various  moods. 

There  was  a  lonely  spot  in  the  forest 
where  the  trailing  arbutus  grew.  It  was 
a  place  shut  in  by  the  barricade  of  pines. 
Amid  dry  leaves  and  mosses,  under  dead 
boughs,  these  little  spring  flowers  lifted 
their  heads  in  glad  surprise.  Musing  on 
this  little  flower  which  tried  to  gladden 
the  lonely  dell,  Whittier  was  led  to  think 
of  lonely  lives,  "  clogged  and  pent,"  cold 
and  cumbered  with  care,  which  still  find 
room 


Nature  91 

"  To  lend  a  sweetness  to  the  ungenial  day, 

And  make  the  sad  earth  happier  for  their  bloom. " 

In  the  heart  of  winter  he  found  things 
which  were  prophecies  of  summer.  Then 
the  winter  noon  seemed  "  warm  as  sum 
mer's  day,"  the  ice  thawed,  the  mossy 
earth  looked  forth,  the  streams  gushed 
clear,  the  fox  left  his  cell,  and  the  blue 
bird  sang  with  the  brook.  All  these 
things  the  poet  saw  and  felt  as  the  sum 
mer  prophecy  of  winter  days. 

"  So,  in  those  winters  of  the  soul, 

By  bitter  blasts  and  drear 
O'erswept  from  Memory's  frozen  pole, 

Will  sunny  days  appear. 
Reviving  Hope  and  Faith,  they  show 

The  soul  its  living  powers, 
And  how  beneath  the  winter's  snow 

Lie  germs  of  summer  flowers  ! 

The  Night  is  mother  of  the  Day, 

The  Winter  of  the  Spring, 
And  ever  upon  old  Decay 

The  greenest  mosses  cling. 
Behind  the  cloud  the  starlight  lurks, 

Through  showers  the  sunbeams  fall ; 
For  God,  who  loveth  all  His  works, 

Has  left  His  hope  with  all." 


9 2          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

As  lie  went  into  the  fields  and  the 
gentle  west  wind  fell  upon  his  cheek, 
and  he  saw  the  fair  meadows  kept  green 
by  the  constant  streams,  the  cool,  blue 
mountains  rising  in  the  distance,  the 
moist  dells  where  the  purple  orchis 
blooms,  he  found  a  prophecy  of  the  land 
which  is  to  bring  rest  to  every  soul  and 
cool  every  pilgrim's  brow  : 

"  So  the  o'erwearied  pilgrim,  as  he  fares 

Along  life's  summer  waste,  at  times  is  fanned, 

Even  at  noontide,  by  the  cool,  sweet  airs 
Of  a  serener  and  a  holier  land, 
Fresh  as  the  morn,  and  as  the  dewfall  bland. 

Breath  of  the  blessed  Heaven  for  which  we  pray, 

Blow  from  the  eternal  hills  !  make  glad  our  earthly 
way !  " 

In  the  spring  time  he  found  the  type 
of  the  resurrection.  He  saw  in  it  the 
yearly  evangel  from  God,  bearing  his  glad 
message  of  life  over  the  grave. 

"  O  soul  of  the  spring-time,  its  light  and  its  breath, 
Bring  warmth  to  this  coldness,  bring   life  to  this 

death ; 

Renew  the  great  miracle  ;  let  us  behold 
The  stone  from  the  mouth  of  the  sepulchre  rolled, 


Nature  93 

And  Nature,  like  Lazarus,  rise,  as  of  old  ! 

Let  our  faith,  which  in  darkness  and  coldness  has 

lain, 

Revive  with  the  warmth  and  the  brightness  again, 
And  in  blooming  of  flower  and  budding  of  tree 
The  symbols  and  types  of  our  destiny  see ; 
The  life  of  the  spring-time,  the  life  of  the  whole, 
And,  as  sun  to  the  sleeping  earth,  love  to  the  soul ! " 

If  nature  spoke  such  a  varied  language 
to  Whittier  it  was  because  he  saw  the 
"  Giver  in  the  given."  To  him  nature's 
phases  were  "  God's  great  pictures,"  and 
in  contemplating  the  picture  he  never 
forgot  the  Artist.  Thus  when  he  went 
to  the  hills  he  saw  them  crowned  with 
"  unseen  altars,"  when  he  walked  through 
the  fields  he  was  conscious  that  a  "  Pres 
ence  from  the  heavenly  heights  to  those 
of  earth  stoops  down."  By  the  side  of 
Lake  Winnipesaukee,  looking  in  the 
"  dark,  still  wood,"  and  "  upon  the  stiller 
sea  and  greener  land,"  he  found  rest  for 
his  spirit.  Here  even  conscience  slum 
bered,  the  voice  of  duty  was  still,  the 
shadows  of  life  melted  away.  But  this 


94          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

restful  spirit  came  because  nature  was  the 
voice  of  the  Inner  Light  which  spoke 
peace  to  the  soul. 

"  Rocked  on  her  breast,  these  pines  and  I 
Alike  on  Nature's  love  rely  ; 
And  equal  seems  to  live  or  die. 

Assured  that  He  whose  presence  fills 
With  light  the  spaces  of  these  hills 
No  evil  to  His  creatures  wills, 

The  simple  faith  remains,  that  He 
Will  do,  whatever  that  may  be, 
The  best  alike  for  man  and  tree. 

What  mosses  over  one  shall  grow, 
What  life  and  light  the  other  know, 
Unanxious,  leaving  Him  to  show." 

The  quiet  lake  is  the  "  mirror  of 
God's  love/'  and  while  sitting  by  it 
with  its  wooded  isles,  beholding  the  sun 
setting  behind  its  purple  mountains,  Whit- 
tier  felt  a  calm  repose  stealing  into  his 
life  of  suffering,  which  led  him  to  rest  in 
faith  on  the  divine  Goodness. 

"Still  waits  kind  Nature  to  impart 

Her  choicest  gifts  to  such  as  gain 
An  entrance  to  her  loving  heart 

Through  the  sharp  discipline  of  pain. 


Nature  95 

Forever  from  the  hand  that  takes 
One  blessing  from  us,  others  fall  ; 

And,  soon  or  late,  our  Father  makes 
His  perfect  recompense  to  all !  " 

The  Indian  wandering  in  the  forest 
looked  out  "  upon  the  smile  of  God." 
He  found  in  nature  the  great  Spirit.  He 
knew  not  the  language  of  the  skeptic, 
but,  in  the  simplicity  of  his  life,  he  felt 
a  Power  which  carried  conviction  to  his 
soul.  As  the  primitive  mind  found  in 
the  wind,  the  sunset,  and  the  tranquil 
deep,  an  ever-present  spirit,  so  there 
Whittier  found  his  ever-present  God. 

"  God  near  him  seemed  ;  from  earth  and  skies 

His  loving  voice  he  heard, 
As,  face  to  face,  in  Paradise, 
Man  stood  before  the  Lord. 

Thanks,  O  our  Father !  that,  like  him, 

Thy  tender  love  I  see, 
In  radiant  hill  and  woodland  dim, 

And  tinted  sunset  sea. 
For  not  in  mockery  dost  Thou  fill 

Our  earth  with  light  and  grace  ; 
Thou  hid'st  no  dark  and  cruel  will 

Behind  Thy  smiling  face  ! " 


96          The  Mind  of  Whittier 

Whittier  seems  to  sum  up  his  entire 
conception  of  nature  in  the  poem  en 
titled  "  The  Meeting  :  " 

"  But  nature  is  not  solitude : 
She  crowds  us  with  her  thronging  wood ; 
Her  many  hands  reach  out  to  us, 
Her  many  tongues  are  garrulous  ; 
Perpetual  riddles  of  surprise 
She  offers  to  our  ears  and  eyes  ; 
She  will  not  leave  our  senses  still, 
But  drags  them  captive  at  her  will : 
And,  making  earth  too  great  for  heaven, 
She  hides  the  Giver  in  the  given." 

Nature  was  a  "  perpetual  riddle  of  sur 
prise  "  because  it  was  more  than  form  and 
beauty.  It  was  steeped  in  a  spiritual 
atmosphere  which  gave  to  it  meaning 
and  was  the  reason  for  its  constant  ap 
peal  to  human  thought  and  sentiment. 

As  man  understands  man  because  of 
kindred  spirit,  so  man  understands  and 
communes  with  nature  because  there  is 
in  nature  a  spirit  like  his  own. 

Some  may  feel  the  necessity  of  kneel 
ing  before  saintly  shrines  and  breathing 
the  air  of  holy  places.  "  Cowled  and  tur- 


Nature  97 

baned  pilgrims "  may  bathe  in  sacred 
rivers.  Whittier,  too,  felt  the  necessity 
of  going  to  a  holy  place  for  worship  to 
lose  his  cares  and  ills,  but  he  preferred  to 
go  to  "  the  strong  uplifting  hills  "  and 
there, 

"  Calm  as  the  hour,  methinks  I  feel 
A  sense  of  worship  o'er  me  steal ; 
Not  that  of  satyr-charming  Pan, 
No  cult  to  Nature  shaming  man, 
Not  Beauty's  self,  but  that  which  lives 
And  shines  through  all  the  veils  it  weaves, — 
Soul  of  the  mountain,  lake,  and  wood, 
Their  witness  to  the  Eternal  Good  1 " 


FUTURE  LIFE 

\X7HITTIER  was  not  one  who  would 
say,  if  there  is  no  heaven  then 
life  is  not  worth  living.  He,  probably, 
would  not  have  been  a  pessimist  had  he 
believed  that  death  ended  all.  Man 
might  find  many  things  which  would  fill 
him  with  regret  as  he  looked  upon  a 
misspent  past.  There  might  be  much  to 
make  him  feel  that  he  had  been  a  poor, 
blind,  miserable  servant.  Yet 

"  If  he  hath  hidden  the  outcast,  or  let  in 
A  ray  of  sunshine  to  the  cell  of  sin  ; 

If  he  hath  lent 

Strength  to  the  weak,  and,  in  an  hour  of  need, 
Over  the  suffering,  mindless  of  his  creed 

Or  home,  hath  bent ; 
He  hath  not  lived  in  vain." 

Such  a  life  is  ample  reward  in  itself. 
Still  Whittier  did  have  a  strong  faith  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soul.  "  The  little 


Future  Life  99 

circumstance  of  death,"  he  wrote,  "  will 
make  no  difference  with  me."  After  the 
death  of  his  sister,  who  had  been  his  con 
stant  companion  and  great  helper,  he 
wrote  in  "  Snow-Bound  :  " 

"  I  cannot  feel  that  thou  art  far 
Since  near  at  hand  the  angels  are  ; 
And  when  the  sunset  gates  unbar, 
Shall  I  not  see  thee  waiting  stand, 
And,  white  against  the  evening  star, 
The  welcome  of  thy  beckoning  hand  ?  " 

The  same  hope  is  expressed  in  another 
part  of  the  poem  : 

"  Yet  love  will  dream  and  faith  will  trust, 
(Since  He  who  knows  our  needs  is  just), 
That  somehow,  somewhere,  meet  we  must. 
Alas  for  him  who  never  sees 
The  stars  shine  through  his  cypress  trees  ! 
Who,  hopeless  lays  his  dead  away, 
Nor  looks  to  see  the  breaking  day 
Across  the  mournful  marbles  play  ! 
Who  hath  not  learned,  in  hours  of  faith, 

The  truth  to  flesh  and  sense  unknown, 
That  Life  is  ever  Lord  of  Death, 

And  Love  can  never  lose  its  own." 

Whittier  had  no  vague,  indefinite  faith 
in  the    future  life.     He  expected    to  re- 


ioo        The  Mind  of  Whittier 

tain  his  individuality  in  the  next  life  so 
that  he  might  be  recognized  by  his 
friends  and  recognize  them.  "  I  shall 
have  the  same  loves,  and  aspirations, 
and  occupations.  If  it  were  not  so  I 
should  not  be  myself,  and  surely  I  shall 
not  lose  my  identity." 

The  thought  of  annihilation  was  intol 
erable  to  him.  There  are  at  least  two 
forms  of  this  doctrine.  One  teaches  that 
man  is  a  spark  from  the  central  light, 
and  that  death  is  simply  the  return  of 
the  spark  into  the  great  flame.  Or  to  use 
a  more  familiar  figure,  the  soul  is  like  a 
drop  of  water  out  of  the  great  ocean  of 
spirit,  and  death  is  the  return  of  the 
drop  into  the  limitless  expanse.  The 

other  form  of  this  doctrine  has   nothino- 

t> 

to  say  about  the  origin  of  the  soul.  It 
speaks  only  of  its  destiny,  declaring  that 
death  ends  all.  Whichever  form  we  con 
sider,  the  end  is  the  same,  the  destruc 
tion  of  personality.  Whittier  could  not 
believe  such  a  doctrine.  Nothing  less 


Future  Life  101 

than  the  survival  of  personality,  so  that 
it  might  be  recognized  in  the  future 
state,  could  satisfy  his  faith. 

"  Nor  mine  the  hope  of  Indra's  son, 
Of  slumbering  in  oblivious  rest, 

Life's  myriads  blending  into  one, 
In  blank  annihilation  blest ; 

Dust-atoms  of  the  infinite, 

Sparks  scattered  from  the  central  light, 
And  winning  back  through  mortal  pain 
Their  old  unconsciousness  again. 

No  !  I  have  friends  in  Spirit  Land, 

Not  shadows  in  a  shadowy  band, 
Not  others,  but  themselves  are  they." 

He  could  not  think  that  the  noblest 
work  of  God  would  be  destroyed  while 
material  things  remain  forever.  There  is 
the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy 
and  the  indestructibility  of  matter. 
Surely  there  must  be  a  spiritual  law 
which  will  assure  the  indestructibility  of 
personality.  We  cannot  think  that  God 
cares  more  for  physical  force  and 
material  atoms  than  he  does  for  spiritual 
beings. 


102        The  Mind  of  Whit  tier 

"  The  waves  which  lull  thy  body's  rest, 
The  dust  thy  pilgrim  footsteps  trod, 
Unwasted,  through  each  change,  attest 
The  fixed  economy  of  God. 

Shall  these  poor  elements  outlive 

The  mind  whose  kingly  will  they  wrought  ? 
Their  gross  unconsciousness  survive 

Thy  godlike  energy  of  thought  ?  " 

While  Whittier  speaks  these  assuring 
words  concerning  the  immortal  life,  we 
must  not  conclude  that  he  accepted  this 
truth  as  an  intellectual  certainty.  We 
have  seen  that  his  supreme  trust  in  the 
goodness  of  God  was  an  act  of  his  re 
ligious  nature  rather  than  a  proposition 
accepted  by  his  reason.  His  faith  in  im 
mortality  was  a  reasonable  hope  rather 
than  a  certainty  of  the  intellect.  He 
found  nothing  outside  of  his  religious 
nature  which  strengthened  his  faith  in 
the  continuance  of  life  after  death.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  Radical  Club,  Robert 
Dale  Owen  related  many  of  his  experi 
ences  of  spirit  manifestations  and  then 
asked  Whittier,  "  What  would  you  do 


Future  Life  103 

if  you  should  see  such  things?"  "I 
would  cut  and  run,"  said  Whittier.  Such 
things  added  nothing  to  his  faith.  With 
Mrs.  Child  he  discussed  these  things. 

"  Of  many  a  hint  of  life  beyond  the  veil, 

And  many  a  ghostly  tale 
Wherewith  the  ages  spanned  the  gulf  between 

The  seen  and  the  unseen, 
Seeking  from  omen,  trance,  and  dream  to  gain 

Solace  to  doubtful  pain, 
And  touch  with  groping  hands,  the  garment  hem 

Of  truth  sufficing  them, 
We  talked." 

But  these  conversations,  even  with  a 
woman  whom  he  so  much  admired,  did 
not  strengthen  his  faith.  To  him  life 
was  its  own  best  testimony  to  immortal 
ity.  That,  in  the  divine  economy,  any 
life  of  love,  and  tfuth~  and  self-sacrifice 
could  finally  be  lost,  was  a  thing  which 
he  found  himself  unable  to  believe. 

"  Turning  from  the  sore  unrest 

Of  an  all-baffling  quest, 

We  thought  of  holy  lives  that  from  us  passed 
Hopeful  unto  the  last, 


104       The  Mind  of  Whittier 

As  if  they  saw  beyond  the  river  of  death, 

Like  Him  of  Nazareth, 
The  many  mansions  of  the  Eternal  days 

Lift  up  their  gates  of  praise. 

And  hushed  to  silence  by  a  reverent  awe, 

Methought,  O  friend,  I  saw 
In  thy  true  life  of  word,  and  work,  and  thought, 

The  proof  of  all  we  sought." 

Often  Whittier's  heart  and  head,  his 
faith  and  reason,  came  into  conflict. 
When  reason  was  in  the  ascendency,  he 
was  in  confusion  about  the  future  life. 
When  faith  was  in  the  ascendency,  he 
rested  serenely  in  the  hope  of  immortal 
ity.  When  he  tried  to  picture  what  the 
future  life  would  be,  the  influence  of  the 
present  life  upon  that  to  come,  he  felt 
the  solemn  mystery  and  could  speak 
only  in  the  language  of  the  agnostic. 
All  we  know  is  that  our  friends  have 
been  borne  on  by  the  returnless  tide  and 
that  we  too  must  some  day  be  carried 
into  the  unknown. 

"  But  be  the  prying  vision  veiled, 
And  let  the  seeking  lips  be  dumb, 


Future  Life  105 

Where  even  seraph  eyes  have  failed 
Shall  mortal  blindness  seek  to  come  ? 

We  only  knew  that  thou  hast  gone, 
And  that  the  same  returnless  tide 

Which  bore  thee  from  us  still  glides  on, 
And  we  who  mourn  thee  with  it  glide." 

Love,  however,  is  greater  than  knowl 
edge,  and  faith  is  greater  than  logic. 
When  these  voices  of  the  heart  are 
heard,  the  questions  of  the  head  are 
silenced  and  hope  returns. 

"  We  leave  thee  with  a  trust  serene, 

Which  Time,  nor  Change,  nor  Death  can  move, 
While  with  a  childlike  faith  we  lean 

On  Him  whose  dearest  name  is  Love  !  " 

He  was  constantly  emphasizing  the 
thought  that  the  immortal  life  does  not 
begin  beyond  the  grave  but  is  now. 
Death  is  only  an  incident,  not  a  change, 
in  the  process  of  life.  Man  divides  time 
into  the  past,  the  present,  and  the  future, 
and  between  the  present  and  the  future 
there  is  a  thick  veil  drawn,  beyond  which 
no  eye  can  look.  But  with  God  there  are 


io6        The  Mind  of  Whit  tier 

no  such  divisions,  there  is  no  veil  which 
divides  one  time  from  another. 

"  What  to  thee  is  shadow,  to   Him  is  day 

And  the  end  He  knoweth, 
And  not  on  a  blind  and  aimless  way 
The  spirit  goeth." 

So  to  the  soul  that  believes  in  God,  there 
is  no  division  of  time  into  the  present 
and  the  future  life.  "The  past  and  the 
time  to  be  are  one,  and  both  are  now." 
To  the  believing  soul  the  immortal  life  is 
lived  on  the  earth.  The  future  life  is  a 
present  fact  and  heaven  and  hell  are 
present  realities. 

"  O  restless  spirit !  wherefore  strain 

Beyond  thy  sphere  ? 

Heaven  and  hell,  with  their  joy  and  pain, 
Are  now  and  here. 

Back  to  thyself  is  measured  well 

All  thou  hast  given  ; 
Thy  neighbor's  wrong  is  thy  present  hell, 

His  bliss  thy  heaven. 

And  in  life,  in  death,  in  dark  and  light, 

All  are  in  God's  care  : 
Sound  the  black  abyss,  pierce  the  deep  night, 

And  He  is  there." 


Future  Life  107 

Emphasizing  the  goodness  of  God  as 
did  Whittier,  we  might  expect  that  he 
would  have  a  very  large  hope  for  the 
future  life.  He  did  not  believe  that 
death  closed  to  man  all  possibilities  of 
turning  to  God  ;  neither  did  he  believe 
that  all  men  would  finally  be  brought  to 
God.  The  first  of  these  thoughts  is 
found  in  "  The  Cry  of  a  Lost  Soul."  On 
the  Amazon  is  a  bird  which  has  a  pecu 
liar  cry  ;  the  Indians  call  it  the  cry  of  a 
lost  soul.  A  guide  rowing  a  traveler  on 
this  river  hears  the  cry  and  describes  it 
as  the  cry  of  some  infidel  or  heretic, 
coming  from  hell.  Some  soul  has  sinned 
unto  death  so  that  the  "  Holy  Mother 
hath  no  prayer  for  him."  The  traveler 
listens  to  the  story,  meditates  for  a 
moment,  and  then  comes  to  him  a  larger 
hope. 

"  '  Father  of  all  !  '  he  urges  his  strong  plea, 

*  Thou  lovest  all :  Thy  erring  child  may  be 

Lost  to  himself,  but  never  lost  to  Thee  ! 

All  souls  are  Thine  ;  the   wings  of  morning  bear 

None  from  that  Presence  which  is  everywhere, 


loS        The  Mind  of  Whittier 

Nor  hell  itself  can  hide,  for  Thou  art  there. 
Wilt  thou  not  make,  Eternal  Source  and  Goal ! 
In  Thy  long  years,  life's  broken  circle  whole, 
And  change  to  praise  the  cry  of  a  lost  soul  ?  ' ' 

Expressing  the  same  thought  in  "  Eter 
nal  Goodness,"  he  says  : 

"  I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care." 

This  large  hope  for  the  race  which 
Whittier  held  led  some  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  was  a  Universalist.  In  reply  to 
this  he  wrote  to  a  friend :  "  I  am  not  a 
Universalist,  for  I  believe  in  the  possi 
bility  of  the  perpetual  loss  of  the  soul 
that  persistently  turns  away  from  God, 
in  the  next  life  as  in  this.  But  I  do  be 
lieve  that  the  divine  love  and  compassion 
follows  us  in  all  worlds  and  the  Heavenly 
Father  will  do  the  best  that  is  possible 
for  every  creature  He  has  made." 

When  he  turned  from  the  godward  to 
the  manward  side  of  the  question  his  hope 
was  not  so  bright ;  indeed  here  he  knew 
not  what  to  think. 


Future  Life  109 

"  Scarcely  Hope  hath  shaped  for  me 
What  the  future  life  may  be. 
Other  lips  may  well  be  bold  ; 
Like  the  publican  of  old, 
I  can  only  urge  the  plea, 
Lord,  be  merciful  to  me  !  " 

God  will  never  desert  a  soul,  but  man 
may  turn  from  God  and  remain  away 
from  Him.  "  Thou  leavest  us  because 
we  turn  from  Thee." 

"  Though  God  be  good  and  free  be  heaven, 

No  force  divine  can  love  compel  ; 
And,  though  the  songs  of  sin  forgiven 
May  sound  through  lowest  hell, 

The  sweet  persuasion  of  His  voice 

Respects  thy  sanctity  of  will. 
*  *  *  *  * 

Forever  round  the  Mercy-seat 

The  guiding  lights  of  love  shall  burn, 

But  what  if  habit  bound,  thy  feet 
Shall  lack  the  will  to  turn  ? 

What  if  thine  eyes  refuse  to  see, 

Thine  ear  of  Heaven's  free  welcome  fail, 

And  thou  a  willing  captive  be, 
Thyself  thy  own  dark  jail  ?  " 

As  the    present    life    is    a  part    of  the 
eternal  life,  our  conduct  here   must  influ- 


1 10        The  Mind  of  Whittier 

ence  our  future  destiny.  We  shape  here 
the  character  of  the  life  to  come  ;  by 
our  present  conduct  we  "  fill  our  future's 
atmosphere  with  sunshine  or  with  shade." 

"  The  tissue  of  the  life  to  be 

We  weave  with  colors  all  our  own, 
And  in  the  field  of  Destiny 
We  reap  as  we  have  sown. 

Still  shall  the  soul  around  it  call 

The  shadows  which  it  gathered  here, 

And  painted  on  the  eternal  wall, 
The  Past  shall  reappear. 

Think  ye  the  notes  of  holy  song 
On  Milton's  tuneful  ear  have  died  ? 

Think  ye  that  Raphael's  angel  throng 
Has  vanished  from  his  side  ? 

Oh  no  !  We  live  our  life  again ; 

Or  warmly  touched,  or  coldly  dim, 
The  pictures  of  the  Past  remain,— 

Man's  works  shall  follow  him  !  " 

Still,  if  the  future  world  were  divided 
into  two  distinct  realms,  if  there  were  a 
separation  between  the  good  and  the 
bad,  between  the  obedient  and  the  dis 
obedient,  Whittier  could  not  believe  that 
it  would  be  impossible  to  pass  from  one 


Future  Life  1 1 1 

to  the  other.  So  long  as  sin  remains  and 
souls  dwell  in  darkness,  heaven  could  not 
be  heaven  and  "  look  unmoved  on  hell." 
A  peace  with  a  selfish  unconcern  about 
those  writhing  in  the  pain  of  remorse, 
a  saintly  ease  which  has  no  pitying 
care,  a  love  which  has  no  prayer  for 
the  sinner's  forgiveness,  can  be  no  part 
of  the  heavenly  life. 

"Is  heaven  so  high 
That  pity  cannot  breathe  its  air  ? 
Its  happy  eyes  forever  dry, 

Its  holy  lips  without  a  prayer  ! 
My  God  !  my  God  !  if  thither  led 

By  thy  free  grace  unmerited, 
No  crown  nor  palm  be  mine,  but  let  me  keep 
A  heart  that  still  can  feel,  and  eyes  that  still  can 
weep." 

The  same  thought  is  further  developed 
in  "  The  Two  Angels."  God  called  two 
angels,  one  was  Pity  and  the  other  was 
Love,  and  sent  them  on  an  errand  of 
mercy  into  the  under  world.  A  wail 
of  sin  and  woe  came  through  the  gates  of 
heaven  and  saddened  those  within.  The 
smoke  of  torment  darkened  heaven's 


1 1 2        The  Mind  of  Whittier 

bright  light.  The  divine  compassion 
could  not  rest  satisfied  with  such  sights 
and  sent  the  angels  with  this  command  : 

"  Fly  downward  to  that  under  world   and   on  its 

souls  of  pain 
Let  Love  drop  smiles  like  sunshine,  and  Pity  tears 

like  rain ! " 

Swiftly  they  made  their  flight  through 
the  long,  strange  way  until  they  came  to 
the  "  lost  and  nether  world,  red-wrapped 
in  rayless  flame." 

"  There    Pity,   shuddering,   wept ;  but  Love  with 

faith  too  strong  for  fear, 

Took  heart  from  God's  almightiness  and  smiled 
a  smile  of  cheer. 

And   lo  !   that   tear  of  Pity   quenched  the  flame 

whereon  it  fell, 
And,    with   the    sunshine   of    that    smile,   hope 

entered  into  hell ! " 

Not  only  did  this  act  bring  hope  into 
hell ;  it  also  brought  joy  into  heaven. 
The  Father  said  to  the  returning  angels  ; 

4 'Welcome,  my  angels!  ye  have  brought  a  holier 

joy  to  heaven  ; 

Henceforth  its  sweetest  song  shall   be  the  song 
of  sin  forgiven  !  " 


Future  Life  113 

With  this  calm,  peaceful  faith  in  the 
future  life,  and  childlike  trust  in  the 
Eternal  Goodness,  Whittier  closed  his 
life  on  the  seventh  of  September,  1892. 
As  the  end  approached  one  of  the  little 
group  of  relatives  who  stood  by  his  bed 
side  recited  his  poem  "  At  Last  :  " 

"  When  on  my  day  of  life  the  night  is  falling, 

And,   in   the  winds   from    unsunned    spaces 

blown, 

I  hear  voices  out  of  darkness  calling 
My  feet  to  paths  unknown, 

Thou  who  hast  made  my  home  of  life  so  pleas 
ant, 
Leave  not  its  tenant  when  its  walls  decay  ; 

0  Love  Divine,  O  Helper  ever  present, 
Be  thou  my  strength  and  stay  ! 

Be  near  me  when  all  else  is  from  me  drifting  ; 

Earth,    sky,    home's  pictures,  days  of  shade 

and  shine, 
And  kindly  faces  to  my  own  uplifting 

The  love  which  answers  mine. 

1  have  but  Thee,  my  Father  !  let  Thy  spirit 

Be  with  me  then  to  comfort  and  uphold  ; 
No  gate  of  pearl,  no  branch  of  palm  I  merit, 
Nor  street  of  shining  gold. 


1 1 4        The  Mind  of  Whittier 

Suffice  it  if— my  good  and  ill  unreckoned, 

And   both  forgiven   through   Thy  abounding 
grace— 

I  find  myself  by  hands  familiar  beckoned 
Unto  my  fitting  place. 

Some  humble  door  among  Thy  many  mansions, 
Some  sheltering  shade  where  sin  and  striving 

cease, 

And  flows  forever   through  heaven's  green    ex 
pansions 
The  river  of  Thy  peace. 

There,  from  the  music  round  about  me  stealing, 
I  fain  would  learn  the  new  and  holy  song, 

And  find  at  last,  beneath  Thy  trees  of  healing, 
The  life  for  which  I  long." 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA— BERKELEY 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or  on  the 

date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


LIBRARY  USE 

NOV  14  1954 

•  - 

3V14 


r       5 


REC'D  1 

APR  3Q  i  3Dec'59MI! 

Oct'58HK 

.  -•   -  - 


WdS 
a- 

a 


28Feb'59BHB 

' 


21-100m-l1'&4(1887^l6)i476 


JAN  3     196 
RS 

DEC  17 1 


>  LD 

JUL  2  6  1962 


• 
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